It's The Rush That You Get
by DarkElements10
Summary: -First in the It's On Series-. -S1-2- In the music industry, you're bound to have a rival band that's trying to make it 'there' as well. But when that rival band turns out to be the ones that help you see the reality of life, it makes everything complicated...It's the rush that you get. (Re-Write of With Friends Like These Series.)
1. When You Need Help

**It's The Rush That You Get**

**By: Riley**

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><p><strong>.:<span>Chapter One<span> – When You Need Help:.**

_"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone." ~ Loretta Scott_

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><p>"Boys, get up, you're going to be late!" Mrs. Knight called as she bustled around the kitchen, putting plates and silverware on the small table that was part of the 'kitchen' of apartment 2J. She then picked up bowls of steaming food off of the counters and moved to place them in the middle of the table.<p>

Not hearing any of the bedroom doors being opened, she let out a sigh and turned to her daughter, Katie Knight, who was sitting on the couch, watching something on the news. "Katie, would you mind to go and wake up the boys for me? I don't want them to be late for school."

"Sure mom," Katie replied and got off of the couch and started towards the rooms.

Mrs. Knight thought for a moment and then turned to Katie, placing a hand on her hip. "Katie, drop the Nerf gun!" She declared.

Katie turned and looked at her mother with wide, innocent eyes, but when Mrs. Knight narrowed her eyes and continued to look at her, Katie sighed and moved her arms out from behind her back, dropping a large Nerf gun onto the counter.

"Oh come on, mom, you're not letting me have _any_ fun," Katie declared, rolling her eyes as she walked closer to her mother. "I mean, what's the point of having the other guys living with us if I can't mess with them a little?"

"Uh, so they can live out their dream of being Big Time Rush?" Mrs. Knight replied. She then gave a soft smile and reached out a hand, gently smoothing Katie's hair out of her face. "We've only been here for a few months and Gustavo is working the boys really hard. They have never been worked this hard before, not even when they were playing hockey all the time. Just give them some time to get used to it."

"Ok," Katie pouted for a minute. But then the mischievous glint reappeared in her green eyes. "But the minute they're not so tired, they're mine!"

"Alright," Mrs. Knight laughed and kissed Katie on the forehead. "Just go wake them up, please."

Katie gave a salute and then disappeared around the wall that concealed the bedrooms. Mrs. Knight went back to setting the table, basking in the few moments of silence, but then jumped again when her son, Kendall, and his friends James Diamond, Logan Mitchell, and Carlos Garcia stumbled out of their rooms, screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs, fully dressed, and dragging their backpacks behind them.

Katie calmly walked out after them, smiling smugly.

Mrs. Knight looked over at her and shook her head for a moment. _What could she have possibly done this time? _She took a deep breath before speaking. "Katie," Mrs. Knight was starting to lose her patience. "What did I just say about leaving them alone?"

"What?" Katie shrugged innocently. "I didn't hurt them or anything."

"Then what did you do?"

Katie just smiled and looked over at the four teenage boys, who shuffled backwards away from her, and slid into her seat at the kitchen table. She started to pile her plate with food as Mrs. Knight continued to look hard at her.

"Nothing," She replied simply and smiled as the four boys slowly took their seats, eyeing her warily. "Nothing at all."

_Do I even __really__ want to know? _Mrs. Knight looked at the ceiling and then shook her head, deciding that it wasn't worth her time. "So why were you late to waking up, Logan?" Mrs. Knight asked as she took her mug of coffee and sat down at the head of the table, waiting for the guys to finish grabbing their food before filling her own plate. No use trying to lose some fingers when food was involved.

Logan held up a finger, to show Mrs. Knight that he wasn't done chewing, before he spoke. Mrs. Knight couldn't help but smile at him. He was always the most polite of them all and it was a fresh change James hogging the bathroom to fix his hair, Kendall hogging the TV to watch a hockey game, or Carlos just running around, screaming in everyone's faces. For years, Mrs. Knight had told Kendall, completely joking of course, that he needed a friend that could teach him manners, and then Logan moved to Minnesota in 3rd grade and he got just that.

It wasn't that the other boys weren't great. Kendall was the best son she could ask for, he constantly took care of her and Katie, he looked out for his friends, and he even got a job to help her with pay the bills. (Being a single mother wasn't always as easy as she made it seem). Carlos was such a sweetheart, sensitive to the point that he cried whenever someone else was crying and worried about other people to the point that he could make himself sick. And of course there was James, he could be narcissistic at times; but he had a heart of fold and was willing to do anything for any of his friends. All together, the four of them just worked, and Mrs. Knight often wondered how they had gotten through life without each other before Logan moved there.

"I didn't hear my alarm go off," Logan finally said after he finished eating. "But then again," his eyebrows lowered, his brown eyes darkened, and his eyelids fell as he looked over at Katie. "It could have been turned off on purpose." Katie just smiled sweetly as she reached out to gulp down her orange juice. "But it stinks because I don't have any time to do my project and-"

"What project?" Carlos asked, his eyes growing wide with alarm.

"Wait a minute," Kendall lifted an index finger before pointing it across the table to Logan. His green eyes widened incredulously. "This couldn't _possibly _be that project that Miss. Collins just assigned _yesterday_." Logan gave a smug smile. Kendall continued to stare at Logan and then gave a short, sarcastic laugh.

"Kiss up!" James fake-coughed into his hand and Kendall laughed in agreement.

"It wouldn't hurt your grade to try and get a head start on your project, Kendall." Mrs. Knight commented with an amused smile as her son shot her a pained look.

"Way to be on my side, mom." Kendall mumbled.

"I'm not on anyone's side, sweetie." Mrs. Knight leaned forward and kissed Kendall on the cheek, causing him to blush in front of his friends. "But I do care about all of your grades, and they could be higher."

"You don't know how hard it is to do schoolwork though, Mama Knight," James quickly defended himself. "I mean, take me for example; I have to do my hair, make sure my clothes are cool enough to leave the apartment in, make sure I smell good for the ladies," he continued to count off on his fingers. "Then I have to go to school which we all know is boring-"he ignored Logan's indignant cry of 'hey' and continued. "_Then _we have to go to Rocque Records and get worked into the ground, and come back here." He slapped his hands down on the table and leaned towards Mrs. Knight, his eyes wide. "I barely have time to do my nightly facial regime, let alone do my homework! Do you know how important my nightly facial regime is?"

"I haven't the foggiest," Mrs. Knight replied with a tight-lipped smile. _Don't lose your temper; you'll only regret it later. _Mrs. Knight let out a sigh and looked at her watch and then set her mug of coffee down onto the table. "Hey, you guys are _really_ going to be late!" She got up and went over to the refrigerator as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie hurried to finish their breakfast. "Here are your lunches," Mrs. Knight turned from the refrigerator with 5 marked brown bags in her hands.

"Thanks mom," Katie took hers before quickly rushing out the door.

"Thanks Mama Knight." Logan said as he took his lunch bag and put it in his backpack.

"Thank You!" James flashed a charming smile as he took his.

"Yum!" Carlos licked his lips as he opened his bag and looked inside of it. He reached his hand in and pulled out a sandwich, starting to unwrap it as he walked out the door.

Mrs. Knight shook her head as she handed Kendall his bag. "Thanks mom," he grinned and leaned over, giving his mother a kiss on the cheek. "Have a great day," he then placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a concerned look. "And try to relax; you seem pretty tense this morning."

"I'm yours and Katie's mother, the boys' surrogate mother while they're out here in Los Angeles, and I'm your guys' momager," Mrs. Knight replied as she raised an eyebrow. "So, yes, I'm going to be a little tense every now and then." She lightly patted Kendall on the back. "Try not to let Gustavo push your boys around."

Kendall shot his mother a knowing look and left the apartment, jogging to catch up with his friends and sister.

"Bye," Mrs. Knight called after him as the door closed. "Have a great day!"

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><p>"Finally, school's over." Carlos grinned as he walked out of the Palm Woods School. "I don't know how much more of that mumbo jumbo I was going to have to listen to." He let out a sigh and slid his backpack off of his shoulders and tossed it over to Logan. "Here, carry this for me?"<p>

Logan let out a shriek as the backpack hit him in the chest, causing him to stumble back a few spaces, but he didn't fall to the ground. "Carlos," Logan snapped and tossed the backpack over to his short friend. "Watch it! You nearly bashed my nose in!"

"Hmm," James placed his index finger to his chin and moved in front of Logan, being obvious about looking him up and down. He then moved his hands up to mimic the look of a camera and tilted them up and down. "With our facial features, having a broken nose may actually _help_ you."

"Ha ha ha," Logan laughed sarcastically and shoved him on the arm.

"Cool it guys, you don't want to do Gustavo's dirty work for him," Kendall stated with a half smile, hitching his backpack up his shoulder. "You know, with his constant screaming and yelling and tearing down our self-esteem, it's only so long until we want to commit suicide, don't speed up the process."

"Kind of morbid conversation for going to rehearsal don't you think?"Kelly Wainright, Gustavo's assistant asked as she walked over to her boys, her eyes glued to her Palm Pilot, like usual. "And Gustavo's not that bad, he's just…"

"Horrible?" Kendall offered.

"Loud?" James added, wiggling a finger in his ear.

"Bossy?" Logan guessed.

"…Mean!" Carlos smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

Kelly couldn't help but smile a little bit as she shook her head. She had to admit, these guys were definitely what Gustavo needed to keep him on his toes with Griffin. And she _couldn't_ say that Gustavo wasn't all of those things, but he had gotten better at managing his anger and stress. To anyone that had just met Gustavo (like the boys had only four months ago) they would say that it was a joke. But Kelly had been working with Gustavo for years and had been by his side with every successful or failed music group that he created along the years and she knew what she was talking about.

"Let's just get to the studio guys," she instructed and turned on her heel, to leave the PalmWoods, giving a bright smile to Mr. Reginald Bitters, the PalmWoods manager as he watched them leave with a glare. "Today you have to work really hard, Gustavo has a lot riding on you. Griffin has really been breathing down his back lately."

"About what?" Kendall asked, looking a tiny bit concerned for his music producer. "What does he have to bother Gustavo about? We just made our demos, Griffin just chose them, and we're making our first CD, what's so bad about that?"

"We'll talk about it after Gustavo and Griffin see if you guys have improved," Kelly replied after a moment. She then noticed the guys' expression as they stopped at the van that drove them to and from Rocque Records every day. "Which you guys have, you've improved so much in such as short time it's phenomenal."

"But," Logan prompted, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"But," Kelly agreed with a sigh. She sucked on her tongue, and then shook her head, giving a bright smile. "But nothing, just don't worry about it right now; I shouldn't have even worried you guys. Just go to practice and do a great job and things will go from there." She then opened the passenger side door to the van and gracefully slid inside as the boys clambered into the back.

The four boys pushed Kelly's comments out of their minds as they got into a conversation, or more of a fight, of whether or not playing ice hockey in real life was better than playing it as a video game. When they had arrived at Rocque Records, all of their apprehension was gone and they were even laughing and joking as they went into the dressing rooms to change before going to the dance studio to get some work done.

"Hey Gustavo," Kendall greeted cheerfully. "What do you have for us to-"he stopped short and Carlos, James, and Logan crashed into him.

Gustavo Rocque was standing at one side of the dancing studio glaring at them. But that wasn't different; he was always glaring, grunting, or shouting at them for something, even if they were doing something right. Mr. X was in the room as well, he was Big Time Rush's very eccentric choreographer, and even he seemed nervous. But Arthur Griffin, the CEO of Rocque Records (and Gustavo's personal tormenter) was in the room as well, his arms behind his back and giving a peaceful smile. Kelly had warned them about this, but it was still odd to see him there. And when Arthur Griffin was around, there was usually bad news that came along with it.

"What's going on?" Logan asked, looking back and forth between Gustavo, Mr. X, and Griffin.

"Yeah," James turned to Kelly. "I thought you said that Griffin wasn't going to be here today." Kelly gave a slow shrug, the stunned expression on her face showing that she absolutely had no idea what was going on.

"Boys," Griffin spoke up and slowly walked across the room to the four friends. "Lately, I have been wondering, how is a new boy-band going to help Rocque Records make me money?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I mean, they aren't well known, so how will I drum up interest in them?"

"A lot of advertisement?" Logan guessed.

"Exactly," Griffin turned to Logan and gave what was supposed to be a smile, but looked like a smirk. "Advertisement, promotion of your music _and_ your image, that's what's going to make you big." He whipped his head around to Griffin. "Not a bunch of blind luck." He turned around completely and walked over to Gustavo. "I might not have to go with my decision, but knowing you, Gustavo, it might be a good idea." He nodded over to the large man.

Gustavo bared his teeth and glared at Griffin through his sunglasses before turning his attention to Big Time Rush. "Dogs," he barked, causing them to blink and stand at attention. "I need you to go through 'Famous' all of the choreography that we worked on over the weekend."

"But Gustavo, we haven't finalized it and-"

"Oh," Griffin cut Carlos off. "Talking back?" He turned to Gustavo. "Don't you know how to control your…_dogs_?"

Kelly winced.

Gustavo's face turned red and he gritted his teeth together. "DOGS, FAMOUS, NOW!"

Kendall made a face and looked at his friends as they moved into the positions that they had come up with when they first finished the song. Kendall in front, as he had the lead vocals for the song, James and Carlos staggered to the left and right, just behind him, and Logan in the back, but slightly off to the side so he could still be seen. The four waited as Mr. X walked over to the boom box and pushed 'PLAY' causing the first few notes to blare out of the tiny machine.

The boys went through the motions of the song as best as they could, and at first they were doing pretty well. But when they got to the part of the song that they had only just recently learned, adding in the fact that Gustavo was openly glaring at them as Griffin was staring at them, their nerves got the better of them. Logan quickly forgot the steps and lost his place. Carlos kept forgetting to bring his 'microphone' up to his mouth whenever he was supposed to be singing. Kendall fell behind the beat of the song and was half a step off for most of the song. James, although he knew all of the dance routine, was dancing so enthusiastically to cover up his friends' mistakes, just made everything look worse.

"Stop. Stop! _Stop!_" Gustavo stalked over to the boom box and jabbed and slapped at it until the music turned off. Kelly made a face and bit her thumbnail as she looked over at Griffin expectantly. That couldn't have gone any worse than she expected. "HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU GUYS TO LISTEN TO WHAT I AM TELLING YOU AND DOING IT RIGHT?"

Kendall, James, Logan, and Carlos winced, but stayed quiet. Mr. X, who was standing in the corner, was sobbing quietly and muttering things like 'I'll never get a job again', 'I'm going to be fired', and 'Stupid boys that can't x-dance!'

"Gustavo," Kelly said quietly, her eyes still on Griffin. "Maybe you should explain to them what they had done wrong instead of yelling at them." She finally looked over at Gustavo, who was glaring at her. "We don't want another medical emergency do we?"

"Who's side are you on, anyway?" Gustavo snapped back.

"I'm on your side," Kelly replied, starting to become impatient. She waved a hand in Griffin's direction. "But-"

"But, this band isn't progressing as fast as I hoped they would," Griffin said, finally speaking. He walked over to Gustavo, his arms still behind his back. Through his blazer, Gustavo could see his arm muscles bulging. "You're doing a good job, Gustavo," his eyebrows rose for a minute. "If I do say so myself." He cleared his throat. "But you're going to need more help than I thought." Gustavo opened his mouth to shoot off a retort, but Griffin continued speaking. "I mean, you're the one that is trying to come back after 10 years of not having a hit song or a hit band-'

"9 years," Gustavo interrupted.

"And you're _also_ the one that was saying that you could make a dog a pop-star," Griffin held a hand up in front of Gustavo's face. "And your dogs," his eyes moved over to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. "Don't fit the bill so far. So I'm going to go with my plan; you bring them to the music video shoot tomorrow and you'll find the band that Big Time Rush is going to be working with."

"But they're representing two genres of music that are trying to make a comeback," Kelly jumped into the conversation, walking over to Griffin. As she was Gustavo's assistant, Griffin was also her boss, but unlike Griffin, she wasn't as scared of him as much as Gustavo was. "They're going to be rivals." She then snorted. 'Besides, Gustavo hates their manager."

"And with good reason!" Gustavo added, his face turning red again.

"Dude, calm down," James warned. He and his friends had been watching the exchange quietly, not sure whether or not it was a good idea to jump into the conversation. "The shade of your face so does not go with what you're wearing."

"I still don't like you!" Gustavo snapped as he pointed at James in between the eyes.

James nodded simply, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Got it." He said.

"Come on guys, let's not get angry!" Carlos cried as he jumped into the conversation, lightly slapping the top of his hockey helmet in effect. "Why don't we all just calm down and think happy thoughts?"

Griffin looked over at Carlos and then turned back to Gustavo, pointing a finger at the boys. "Maybe working with them will toughen up your puppies a little bit." He concluded, causing Kelly and Gustavo to let out heavy sighs, their shoulders slumping. Griffin smiled and looked at his watch. "I'm going to be making so much more money; I think it's time to buy another llama." He raised a hand. "Good day to you all." With that, he turned on his heel and left the dance studio.

For a few moments, the only thing that could be heard was Mr. X's quieting sobs.

"What just happened?" Logan asked.

"_I'll_ explain," Kelly replied said. "Long story short, Pop Music is back on the rise as well as Alternative/Hard Rock." She looked at Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James, watching their faces. "So while you guys are new to the music scene and are representing the pop genre, a band that's very famous in Australia, New Zealand, and…a lot of other countries have just moved to LA and are trying to make it big here in America and they're representing the Alternative/Hard Rock genre." She ignored her PalmPilot as it continuously buzzed in her hand. "Griffin caught wind of it and warned Gustavo about them."

"So?" Kendall snorted. "Why is that so bad?"

"It's bad," Gustavo's loud voice caused them to jump again. He surged up off of his chair and stormed over to the guys, facing them again. "Because they're doing what I'm doing, but doing it better! They're a Rock band, who can play their own instruments, write their own songs, and can dance. And they've been doing it for _years_!" He shook his head. "The only good thing about it was that they hadn't come over to the US. But now that they're here, Griffin thought of the publicity that would come to Rocque Records if we worked together; so they could help you move through the music industry better and faster than other bands that are just starting out."

"And you think that this is going to hurt us because?" Logan asked as he shrugged, raising his eyebrows. "It sounds like a good idea."

"Trust me; there are a _lot_ of things that are wrong about this." Kelly sighed. "One of which being that it seems to prove that Gustavo can't make a comeback with you guys, which is what he really wanted." She shrugged and then crossed her arms over her chest. "Look, this may not be a bad thing, just meet us here at Rocque Records on Friday and we'll take you to meet the band that you're going to be working with."

"Ok," Kendall agreement after a moment. "But is Gustavo going to sulk like that the whole time?" He pointed over to the grown man, who was now sitting on the floor, his arms crossed over his chest and his bottom lip sticking out. "And what are we going to do with Mr. X?" The choreographed was still standing in the corner crying.

"Mr. X we'll deal with later," Kelly stated. "And Gustavo, yeah, he'll probably still be sulking." She waved a hand. "You guys go; you can have the rest of the day off."

"Are you sure?" James asked as Carlos inched towards the doorway.

"Yeah," Kelly nodded. "I'm sure, see you boys later." She waited until they had grabbed their bags and left the dance studio before walking over to Gustavo. "You're going to have to stop sulking eventually, Gustavo. You can't change their minds."

"I hate that guy!" Gustavo snapped.

"Which one?" Kelly placed a hand on her hip. "Griffin or-"

"Both of them!"

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><p><strong>AN: To those of you that didn't get this before, this is the re-write of my first three BTR stories. That series is/was titled 'With Friends Like These' and they're still up so you can read them if you want. This is a re-write of all of those, so the chapters will have a majority of the same things, but written better. (At least, what I think is written better). But there will be a lot of things changed/taken out/extended as well as there being new scenes. Meh, first chapters are never really my forte, but I hope you guys liked it anyway. I'm not sure if I kept Griffin in character because...I haven't really written about Griffin before, but I think they make him a big too goofy on the show, so I thought about making him the kind of boss that people don't want.  
><strong>

**For the readers that have…read my other stories…Elevate may take a bit longer to be put up, but it will be done soon. I hope you liked this.**

**Like with my other stories, if you guys give me constructive criticism, I'll go back and change everything that I can to make it better and more enjoyable for you guys to read. So please review.**

**Cheers,**

**-Riles**


	2. When Your Brother Is Famous

**.:Chapter Two – When Your Brother Is Famous:.**

"_Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful." ~John Wooden_

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><p>"Please, Katie, please?"<p>

Katie rolled her eyes at her friend's blatant begging. She shifted her phone to her other ear and flopped onto her back on her bed, looking at the ceiling of the apartment. Unlike the walls of her room, which were a light blue, the ceiling was white. Katie's eyes moved over to the crack that had seemingly appeared overnight as she continued to listen to the begging. _I wonder what Bitters is going to do about __that__ crack. He's such a cheapskate; he would probably put a band-aid over it. _She listened as her friend took a pause.

"Nope." Katie finally replied.

"Kates."

"No."

"Katie"

"Nope."

"KATHERINE KNIGHT!"

"…Fine…" Katie sighed as she got off of her bed and walked left her room; she made a sharp right and strolled into the room that James and Carlos shared. She rooted around until she found the white lucky v-neck that James had gone on and on about, explaining each and every one of his successes while wearing that shirt, and went back to her own room. "This will cost you ten dollars though." She warned. "And two extra dollars for because I'm doing this for you."

"Don't you think that's a little-"

"Hey, I'm doing you a favor, Maddie," Katie replied calmly to her friend from back home. "I could just as easily say 'no' and tell James what kind of a stalker you ar-"

"I'll take it," Maddie replied eagerly as Katie walked over to her closet and threw the shirt in it, behind her laundry basket. (Just in case James came looking for it.) "Thanks so much, Katie, you know how much I love the music your brother and the guys." She let out a sigh, but it sounded more like a swoon. "Their music is just so great, don't you think?"

Katie hesitated. She could have said; their music was terrible, the lyrics were whiny, cheesy, and annoying, their musicians weren't good, and the instrumentation wasn't cohesive. But of course, that would have been a lie. She loved her brother, the music the guys made, and the fact that they were living their dream.

But, of course, she loved the money that she could make off of them, more. All of her old friends from back home, and even some people that she didn't even know, were already starting to call her and beg her to get them an autograph, something one of the guys touched, or something they owned. Katie cashed in as soon as she got the first call and now she was getting more and more calls each day. The guys were starting to notice that some of their belongings were starting to disappear, but they never suspected Katie.

_I'm too good to get caught. _Katie thought to herself with a grin. She cleared her throat. "Maddie, I'll have it to you by the weekend at the latest, it'll give me more time to get some more stuff done for my other calls."

"Cool, cool, bye." Maddie squealed and hung up.

Katie smiled and shook her head and looked at her watch. "The guys aren't back yet?" She murmured out loud when she noticed the time. Because of Kelly keeping them on a tight schedule they left from the Palm Woods school, went to Rocque Records, got back to the Palm Woods, procrastinated on their homework, then went to sleep to do it all over again, all on time.

It wasn't that Katie couldn't entertain herself; it was that she liked to mess with the guys' heads, to play pranks on them, just so she knew that her technique as being a stereotypical little sister was improving. Oh well, she'd find a way to entertain herself. Her mother was out at the gym, and no one was really at the pool (from what she could see from the window of their apartment), so she would just play some guitar while she waited for them to get back.

Katie picked up her guitar and strummed a few chords. She smiled fondly at the guitar. It was Kendall's old Jay Jr. acoustic guitar. He had gotten tired of her begging him how to play after he had started lessons and constantly showed her what he had learned. So when he got a new guitar, he gave her his old one and was teaching her a few things. After deciding that playing the guitar wouldn't hold her attention; she turned on her stereo and pulled her laptop onto her lap, surfing the web.

She looked up towards the ceiling when she heard the front door to the apartment burst open, followed by the sound of loud voices and laughter. Yep, her brother and his friends were home, being as loud as usual.

"Hey Katie, we're back!" Kendall called.

_Like I couldn't tell _Katie rolled her eyes. "Ok!" She called back. She snapped her laptop shut and put it aside before sliding off of her bed and leaving her room. She walked over to the orange couch that was in the den and flopped onto it beside her brother as the others filled up the spaces on the couch. "So, what's up? I heard you guys talking to Kelly about something when you were on your way to Rocque Records, sounds serious."

"Yeah, it was," Kendall replied, grimacing a bit. "Apparently Gustavo had high expectations for us-"Katie let out a snort, causing Kendall to shoot her a sharp look. "It's not _that _funny. Anyway, apparently Griffin doubts Gustavo's ability to make us a great band and we're now supposed to work with a band that's famous in Australia that just brought their work over here to Los Angeles so they can help us out."

"Yeah, and apparently Gustavo hates the guy that's the manager of the band that we're going to work with," Logan added, slowly bringing his fingers up to his temples. "So there's probably going to be a lot more yelling going on." He groaned and leaned forward, rubbing his head. "I can already feel the headache coming on."

"What's so bad about that?" Katie shrugged. "If there's someone that can help you guys, why not jump at it?" She gave a sweet smile as Carlos turned away from the TV and gave her a hurt look.

"I thought we were doing a good job," he said, looking offended. "But apparently Griffin didn't think so, and now you don't have any faith in us either." He shook his head and stuck out his lower lip, leaning closer to Katie. "You didn't mean that, did you?"

Katie laughed and pushed him away from her. "But if they're famous in other countries, they could help you," her smiled widened. "And then your net worth will rise and I'll be able to make some more money off of you."

"I should have known this had something to do with money," James remarked, laughing as Kendall looked over at his sister in shock and annoyance. "Everything that you ever do or say has some underlying tone of making money along with it." He looked at his phone as he got a text and quickly responded to it.

"I'm just that good," Katie said with an impish smile, buffing her nails on the front of her shirt. She looked up as James got to his feet. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I've got a date," James replied with a grin as he side-stepped his way around his friends' legs and headed over to his room.

"Already?" Logan looked amazed and annoyed at the same time. "How did you manage that? We only _just_ got back from Rocque Records?"

"Yeah, well," James waved his phone on Logan's face. "That girl, Kelly, from apartment 8Z got my number and she asked me out on a date. Of course I said yes," he gave a haughty laugh. "So we're going to the park and then to the movies." He put his phone back into his pocket as his smile widened. "It doesn't matter which one, I doubt we're going to watch it," he rapidly raised and lowered his eyebrows in succession. "If you know what I mean." He then turned and went into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

"Five bucks she dumps him after tonight," Kendall stated as he starting flipping through the TV channels again. He held out his free hand towards Logan.

"Deal," Logan agreed and took Kendall's hand, shaking it vigorously. "But when you say after tonight, you mean tomorrow right? Because I think she'll be tired of his narcissism as soon as the date is over."

"Hm," Kendall thought about it for a second. "I don't know, maybe-"

"WHO TOOK MY LUCKY WHITE V-NECK SHIRT!" James shouted, poking his head out of the bedroom door. He didn't wait for an answer before he disappeared from sight once more, muttering under his breath about his shirt.

"I'll take that bet and say that this date is _not_ going to happen!" Carlos jumped in, giving Logan and Kendall a high-five.

Katie smiled.

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry that chapter took so long for me to put up and that it's much shorter than the first one, I had other stories to update as well as being on vacation, but you guys know all about that you, were on vacation too. I'm guessing you're all back at school as well. I hope you guys have great semesters. Also this story focuses on Katie as well as the guys, so that's why this chapter was mostly about her, because a lot of people seem to forget about her in their stories.**

**So for those wondering, my story ELEVATE that goes in depth to the making of the guys' second CD and the music industry (as well as showing the differences between BTR and my Characters) that's going to be pushed back until I finish one of my stories. As soon as my SLOD one is done, I might be putting up a KH (Kingdom Hearts) story, but I want to finish a BTR one, or get really far into it, before I start another one. (That's mostly likely going to be either Fairy Tale Nightmare or Darkness of My Past, which I recommend you read).**

**Thanks to **Ash, Rage-Against-Time, MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, LogieLvr914, Lella-Kiley-Lover, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, blue ice, Magical-Memories101, DarkElement-Jackson-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, Got2LiveItBigTime, and BigTimeFan-'10** for reviewing. You guys really put a smile on my face.**

**I'll update again soon.**

**Cheers,**

**-Riles**


	3. When You Have A Rival

**.:Chapter Three – When You Have a Rival:.**

_"If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful." ~ Michael Porter**  
><strong>_

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><p>"Dad? Dad, wake up. We have to meet up with Gustavo in an hour."<p>

Robert Jackson grumbled and pulled his covers up over his head. He then let out a sleepy growl and roughly pulled them off of his face, looking down at the small boy that was standing by his bed. "I'm up, ok! Get out of here so I can keep getting ready!"

"Yes, sir." The boy replied quietly before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Robert winced and jerked at the sound of the door closing. To him, it sounded like a thousand bombs going off at one time, right next to his head. Robert let out a groan and fell back onto his pillows. "What the hell happened last night?" He murmured eyes still closed.

Reality hit him hard. He didn't even remember falling asleep the night before. One minute he out with his friends, watching a football game at Buffalo Wild Wings, and the next thing he knew, he was being woken up by his youngest son at the god-awful time of early morning.

_I guess that's why it's called a black out. _Robert's lips curled into a short smile. He would have sat up, but everyone movement made it feel like someone had hit him over the head with a hammer. Opening his eyes, he noticed that his cell phone was sitting in front of his face on the bed. He tried to grab it, but his arm must have still thought he was asleep, just trying to grab his phone became a problem all its own. Finally he managed to pick up the phone, which felt like a brick, and brought up to his face so he could check the time. For a moment he thought he'd never be able to see again, but then his eyes adjusted to the screen's brightness and he saw it was about seven in the morning.

Finally managing to push himself up into a sitting position, Robert let out a heavy sigh, hanging his head and taking in a few deep breaths before he got up and walked over to his dresser. He grabbed a few clothes and walked over to the bathroom.

Once he snapped on the bathroom light, he let out another groan and shielded his eyes as he waited for them to adjust. Stumbling his way over to the sink, he dropped his clothes to the ground and turned on the water, taking the time to splash some onto his face. He then stumbled over to the shower and managed to get his clothes off and turn the hot water on before he slumped, face first against the shower wall.

The feeling of the hot water sliding over his skin sent shivers of comfort up and down his spine, but that still didn't stop the dull pain in his head.

"That's the last time I go drinking with those lunatics." Robert murmured. He tilted his head back and allowed the water to run over his face for a few moments. He then quickly finished showering, changed into his clothes, and headed down into the kitchen. "There better be some food at my spot," he said loudly as he entered the spacious living room before walking to the kitchen. He smirked when he saw that there was, indeed, a steaming plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes at the head of the table. He sat down in his seat and looked up at his five children, who were seated at their spots at the table, quietly waiting.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." His eldest daughter, Riley replied with a slight nod. She drew a circle on the table top with her right index finger. "How'd you sleep?"

"Not bad," Robert ran his hands over his face. "I must have been really shit-faced though, I don't remember anything from last night."

"That's…nice." Patrick, one of his sons commented and then sank low in his chair, not sure what else to say.

"Sit up," Robert commanded and all five of his children did as they were told. He closed his eyes and waited for them to say grace before starting into their breakfast.

After forking a mouthful of eggs and pancake into his mouth, Robert sat back and looked at his kids as he chewed. Just by looking at them and then at him, you could easily tell that they were not biologically his, but they were his kids just the same. Sometimes he wondered why he adopted all five of them from their home in Sydney, Australia at once, but he had a heart, he didn't want them to have their family broken up. But that's when he found out about their singing/musical ability and knew that it was god's will that brought him to them. Plus, just by being their manager, he felt that his duties of being their father were doubled.

Riley Jackson, her twin, Rhuben, and their three brothers; twins Patrick and Noah, and youngest Sydney are a band that is trying to make it in America called, the DarkElements. They had been in LA for only a few shorts months, after having "moved" from their home in Australia to try and break into the music industry there in America. They hadn't moved from their home permanently, every few months they went back home to work on furthering their music and fan base there, before going back to LA. So far, they had a small fan base on the West Coast of the US, but he knew with the plan that he (begrudgingly) agreed to do, they would be worldwide famous quickly.

All of the Jacksons share the trait of having black hair and blue eyes. But they each have different personalities, even the twins. Riley has a bossy personality, Rhuben has a cold one, Patrick has a loud, eccentric one, Noah has a shy one, and Sydney has a cute one. To be told apart, Riley dyed a stand of her black hair red and it falls into her eyes, Rhuben has a strand of hers dyed purple. Patrick gels his hair up into a Mohawk with the tips dyed blonde, and Noah has his hair in his face with the tips dyed silver. Sydney keeps his hair in a shaggy messy style and the tips dyed aqua blue, to match his eyes. Riley and Rhuben are sixteen, Patrick and Noah are fourteen, and Sydney is nine.

It bugged Robert to no end when they got their hair dyed the first time, especially since he knew that they had gone and done it behind his back on purpose, just to tick him off. But that was well-received by their fans. As long as they were making money, and lots of it, and not embarrassing him in public Robert didn't care what they.

"Alright, this is what we're doing today," Robert said after a few more mouthfuls, getting the attention of his kids. "We're going to meet up with Gustavo Rocque in about an hour to talk to him about that band that you're going to be working with."

Rhuben let out a heavy sigh. "I wish we actually got a say in this before we were told that this was going to happen." She muttered under her breath before turning to her father. "When are we even going to figure out this band that we're meeting on Friday?"

"Today when we go to Rocque Records," Robert replied as calmly as possible. "We're going to work everything out then."

"I'm surprised that you're willing to go to Rocque Records," Patrick said after noisily swallowing a mouthful of orange juice. He wiped his mouth on the back of his arm. "I mean, since you hate Gustavo so much." He then laughed. "You're already shaking, just at the sound of his name."

"Shut up!" Robert replied forcefully, causing Patrick to immediately fall silent and Sydney to whimper. "Now, when we get to Rocque Records I want you guys to listen and don't speak unless you're spoken to." He explained. "I don't want you to mess up the deal that we have going with Rocque Records."

"I'm guessing that this deal is only so our name can get bigger and so you can get more money?" Riley guessed, her blue eyes flashing. "That's alright, we do all the work and you just sit there and hate-"

Robert surged to his feet and smacked Riley across the face. He slowly sat back down as Riley moved a hand up to her cheek, which had already turned red. She kept her head down, glaring at her plate, knowing not to say anything else. Robert sucked in a deep breath, his chest rising and falling as he tried to keep calm. His eyes moved to the others, Sydney shrank under Robert's gaze, and the others skillfully managed not to look directly at him.

"Do the rest of you have anything else that you'd like to say?" he barked.

"No, sir." Noah said his voice barely above a whisper.

"Good," Robert finished the rest of his breakfast and got up, leaving his dishes on the table. "Clean that up when you're done and let me know when you're ready to go. It shouldn't be too long; we can't afford to be late."

"Yes, sir," came the unanimous reply.

Looking at them, you wouldn't think that they were being abused by this man, the one that acted like everything was fine, when on the inside he had a rage that was getting harder and harder to control. You wouldn't think that it would happen in Hollywood. But that's what you don't know about the "City of Angels", there's always someone holding onto a secret that they don't want the public to find out.

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><p>"WHERE ARE THEY?" Gustavo shouted as he looked at his watch for the umpteenth time. He and Kelly were sitting in one of the board rooms in Rocque Records, waiting for their guests to arrive. "They're ten minutes late, Kelly," he turned to his partner, who looked up at his accusing tone. "Where are they?"<p>

"Gustavo," Kelly tried to stay as calm as possible. "You had been asking me that question for the past ten minutes," her tight smile slowly turned into a grimace of gritted teeth. "What makes you think that I would know now, if I didn't know before?"

"That guy," Gustavo clenched his hands into fists. "He's doing this on _purpose_!" He slammed his fists onto the table. He turned to Kelly as she gave a loud sigh. "You know he is, you know that he hates me-"

"As much as you hate him because of something that happened between the two of you years before and blah, blah, blah," Kelly interrupted, adding an eye-roll at the end of her rant. She shook her head at Gustavo as he pursed his lips, clearly ticked off. "Gustavo, Robert Jackson may not like you, but I don't think that he would jeopardize something that would benefit the record company that he represents as well as our record company. He's been in this business almost as long as you have, so he knows what kind of risks there are."

"Ha," Gustavo snorted loudly, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his seat. He raised his eyes, behind his yellow tinted sunglasses, to the clock on the opposite wall and stared at it as the seconds ticked by. He knew that Robert was doing this on purpose; something told him that that was the reason. He didn't even know what it was about him that he didn't like, but there was something shady about him that rubbed Gustavo the wrong way as soon as the two of them met. It must have worked both ways, for Robert also was on edge around him.

"Sorry I'm late," a young looking man pushed open the door to the board room, looking at his phone. "I hit traffic on my way here and-"he paused and looked up at Gustavo and Kelly. "They're not here yet?"

"Nope," Kelly replied before Gustavo could launch into his tirade once more. "I guess they hit traffic as well. How are you doing today, Ronan?" She asked as she stood up and walked over to him, giving him a quick hug.

"Not bad," Ronan McGuire replied as he hugged her back before moving to one of the empty seats and sitting down, placing his phone on the table. "I could be better if I didn't have an emergency at the studio last night."

"Oh," Kelly gave him a sympathetic look. "What kind of emergency?"

"Some of our sample files got deleted so I had to scramble to get them back," Ronan yawned and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his eyes as he stretched. "It took me all night."

"Well, that's what happens when you're not responsible, McGuire," Gustavo stated with a grin, clearly enjoying Ronan's misfortune. "You start to slip."

"Oh really?" Ronan raised an eyebrow as he sat back down. He slowly grinned back. "Does that mean that you stopped being responsible 10 years ago? You know…when Boy Quake was your last…_failed_ project."

"Hey! That was _nine _years ago!" Gustavo snapped back. "Get your facts straight, McGuire."

"I'm guessing that the anger you're taking out on me is actually being directed towards Rob, right?" Ronan guessed, shifting his eyes over to Kelly, who nodded in reply. "That's about right."

"You can't possibly tell me that you don't hate him either," Gustavo accused.

Ronan thought about it for a moment. As much as he would have liked to admit it, it wouldn't be classy. You didn't complain about your boss, even if he was one of the biggest jerks on the planet. What put him off, at first, was that Ronan was three years older than the manager of his clients, meaning that someone younger than him was calling all the shots and effectively telling him what to do. But then there was also the fact that Robert never seemed pleased with anything that Ronan did, even if he did exactly what was asked of him. But there were the few times where he was treated nicely, and he liked his clients, so that made it all worth it.

"I can see it in your eyes, you hate him too." Gustavo continued.

Ronan sucked a breath through his nose. "I don't hate anyone." He replied after a moment, doing everything but sticking his nose in the air, knowing that it was getting on Gustavo's last nerve.

"Whatever," Gustavo dismissed the conversation again and turned back to the clock. "Now, if they're not here in-"

"Relax, Gustavo, we're here." Robert said as he held open the door to the board room and allowed his kids to file into the room before closing the door behind them and taking the last seat. "We ran into traffic on the way here. What can you do?" He shrugged. "It's LA."

"You're right, it _is_ LA," Gustavo agreed. "So what you can do is, I don't know, LEAVE EARLY!"

"Gustavo, I'm sure that raising your voice isn't going to help matters here," Robert said in an irritatingly calm voice. "We were late, we can't help that. You can't predict LA's traffic, you of all people show know that, considering that you've lived here all of your life, and I've spent most of mine in the Midwest and in Australia."

"Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?" Kelly opened a manila folder that was sitting in front of her on the table and pulled out a glossy photo. "This is the band that you're going to be working with," she stated and turned the picture around, pushing it towards Robert, Ronan, and the DarkElements. "This is Kendall Knight, James Diamond, Logan Mitchell, and Carlos Garcia, also known as, Big Time Rush."

Robert took the picture and looked it over as Riley gave a snort, looking amused. "Big Time Rush?" She asked, sounding as if she was in complete disbelief. "I've heard weird band names before but seriously, what kind of a name is that?"

"What happened to the old' 'Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover' lesson you taught me, Riley?" Sydney asked, leaning over to take a look at the picture himself, before turning his big blue eyes up to his eldest sister.

"I lied," Riley replied with a smirk. Rhuben gave her a disapproving look and rolled her eyes. "What? I'm just setting them up for life."

"Don't write them off, yet," Ronan warned them as he looked over the picture himself, after making sure that everyone else had a good look at it. "They may be better than you think."

"They, in a sense, are your competition," Kelly agreed with a nod. "You may be working with them, but you will also be working against them as well, to see which genre and which new upcoming band will sell more records when each of your CDs comes out."

"You're forgetting though," Robert spoke up. "We have a bit of an advantage as my kids are basically re-mastering their first CD, while you're coming up with a new one."

"But that just means that you're re-working your old stuff while we're going along with the change in pop music." Gustavo said. He had a point. Over the years, the sound of pop music had greatly changed, from Madonna, to Britney, to Katy Perry. But alternative music, for the most part, sounded the same.

Robert just smiled in reply. _That's what you think, buddy._

"Do you really think that Big Time Rush isn't much competition?" Noah asked, lightly pushing himself back and forth in his chair. "I've heard that they have really great singing voices and that they could be the next Nsync and Backstreet Boys."

"That really depends on how the fans perceive them and how much promotion they get." Sydney replied quickly.

"Can we hear a sample of their song?" Ronan spoke up, tapping his teeth with his pen. "I just want to see what we're going to be working with before we actually finalize this whole thing."

"Sure," Gustavo pulled his iPhone out of his jeans pocket and pressed a few buttons before laying it out on the table. They all listened as the song _Big Time Rush_ poured out of the small electronic device.

Gustavo looked around the room as the song continued to play; Ronan was lightly bobbed his head along with the music and the DarkElements seemed slightly impressed as well, but Robert was sitting in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest, looking like he wished he could be anywhere else but there. _I can't wait to wipe that smug look off of that man's face._

"So what do you think?" Kelly asked as the song ended.

"They have to work on their harmonies more as well as their vocals," Ronan stated after a minute of thought. "But I think that they have a lot of success ahead of them." He nodded as he looked over at the DarkElements, who gave short nods in reply, their faces apathetic, not looking impressed or unimpressed. He turned to Robert. "What do you think?"

"I think this match-up will be interesting," Robert replied after a moment. He stood up and leaned towards Gustavo, holding out his hand. "It will be a pleasure working with you."

"Likewise," Gustavo stood up as well, grabbing onto Robert's hand and the two shook on it. "We'll have the paperwork done later, you know, in case they write songs together or give it to each other or something, so we don't have to worry about song-stealing."

"Song-stealing?" Robert motioned for his kids to stand up. "You don't think that I would stoop that low, do you?" He gave an easy-going laugh. "Well, we have to get back to our studio so we can get some work done. We'll see you at the music video shoot on Friday."

"See you then." Kelly agreed with a smile and a nod. She waited until they all left the room before turning to Gustavo. "See, it wasn't that bad."

"Just wait, Kelly." Gustavo warned.

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><p>"Once you get to the studio, I want you to get started working on some of those sample songs that we go," Robert instructed Ronan as they walked outside of Rocque Records. "I want them to be as good as you can make them."<p>

"No problem," Ronan replied before walking over to his car.

Robert then turned to his kids, the picture of Big Time Rush still in his hand. "As for you, I want you guys to research these boys." He thrust the picture into Rhuben's hands. "I want you to know _everything_ about these boys before we meet them on Friday. And I mean everything."

"Got it." Rhuben replied, looking at him through squinted eyes, trying to keep the sun out.

"Good," Robert gave a smile. "Now, let's go have a good day at the studio, alright?" He reached out and affectionately mussed Sydney's hair before leading them over to their car.

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><p><strong>AN: Compared to the first chapter of this story, this only had one scene that was the same from chapter two of the original story 'With Friends Like These: Big Time Rivalry" because I didn't want BTR to meet my characters that quickly, I want to draw it out a bit, making things in the music industry a bit more realistic.**

**I hope that you guys liked the more in-depth look at Robert and Gustavo's hatred for each other in comparison to Gustavo and Ronan's fake-hate friendship. This story is going to show more of Robert and his background as well as why he does the things he does. Such as, we had mentioned in our other stories that Robert wasn't always bad; it was usually only when he drank that he was a mean person, so I wanted to show you guys that every now and then he was a normal guy, which is why it was shown sporadically here.**

**I know this chapter focused on my characters and Gustavo and Kelly, but it will get back to the guys, Mrs. Knight, and Katie in the next one.**

**I hope you guys liked it.**

**Thanks to **Ash, Rage-Against-Time, MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, LogieLvr914, Lella-Kiley-Lover, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, blue ice, Magical-Memories101, DarkElement-Jackson-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, Got2LiveItBigTime, SuperNeos2, and BigTimeFan-'10 **for reviewing.**

**Cheers,**

**-Riles**


	4. When You're Nervous

**.:Chapter Four – When You're Nervous:.**

"_But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage__" ~ Etta James_

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><p>"So," Mrs. Knight picked up her fork and placed a piece of her baked potato in her mouth as she glanced around her companions at the dinner table. "Are you boys excited to be meeting the band that you're going to be working with tomorrow?" She blinked when she got groans, moans, and noises of that sort in reply. "I'm sorry, did I miss something?"<p>

"They're nervous as heck, mom." Katie supplied with as mug smile. "They think that they're going to do something stupid when they meet the band tomorrow." She laughed a little as she turned her attention back to her plate. "And knowing these guys, they _will_ do something stupid!"

"Katie!" Kendall and Mrs. Knight snapped in unison, but with different inflections to their tones. Mrs. Knight's held one of scolding, while Kendall's held one of annoyance and irritation.

"Sorry," Katie merely shrugged, although there was a gleeful look in her eye. "I'm just telling the truth."

"Way to be supportive," Logan dead-panned. He then turned to Mrs. Knight. "Hopefully you can see our dilemma. The fact that we're going to be working with a band that's SUPER famous in another country…well, you can't help but worry that you might possibly offend them. I mean, what if we say something that's normal over here, but is an insult over there?"

"Like belching?" Carlos asked a second before emitting an incredibly loud burp. James laughed and the two exchanged a high-five. "That _has_ to be my best one yet!"

"I'll say," Katie remarked, grabbing her napkin and waving it in the air beside her face.

"No, Carlos that's a compliment." Kendall reminded his friend. "In some places, loud burping is a-"

"Don't tell him _that_!" Logan interrupted, making a face. "You don't want him to go around burping into everyone's face all the time, do you?"

"I don't know," Kendall snickered as he reached out and lightly shoved Carlos on the arm. "It could be funny."

_Boys will be boys. _Mrs. Knight mused as she shook her head, watching them interact with each other.

She could see how nervous they were, even in the midst of making jokes. It was a big step for them and she had to applaud them on that. So far, they only have a few demos put out, and Griffin had only just recently given them the news that they were going to make a CD, their lives changed drastically. Not that I didn't already, due to the fact that they were still getting used to their move to LA, but now things were more real. At first it only seemed like a silly dream, and although she wouldn't admit it, Mrs. Knight had been planning on the dream going south and moving back to Minnesota. But now she had to find a job out here in LA, as well as find a way to make sure that the boys stayed grounded while they were out there as well. She didn't have to worry about Katie staying grounded as much; the only thing that she had to worry about with her daughter was how many times she would come home and find random people in her apartment that had to do with some sort of crazy money scheme.

"Ok," Mrs. Knight placed her fork down onto her plate. "Do you really want my advice?"

"Yes, please," James nodded quickly. "If there's anything that I can do to make sure that I can quickly rise with my fame, I'll do it. So if you have any advice to impress this other band, then that would be great."

"Well, to be able to help you impress them, I would have to know what band you're working with." Mrs. Knight replied slowly.

"We don't even know," Logan said as he shook his head. "All we know is that they're a band from Australia, and there are TONS of bands there. Plus," he snorted and rolled his eyes. "I don't think that anything you say to James will help him anyway." James reached over and smacked him on the back of the head. "Ow!" Kendall, James, Katie, and Carlos burst out laughing as Logan shot James a dirty look, bringing and arm up and rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, what were you saying, Mrs. Knight?"

"What I was saying was, if you want things to go smoothly, just be yourselves." Mrs. Knight replied calmly. She held her hands up defensively at the faces that the boys and Katie made as she continued. "I know that seems like very lame advice, but it always works. The best way that you can get a lot out of working with this other band is to get along with them. That way, if the situation arises and you're asked to work with someone else-"

"Like Katy Perry?" James jumped in, his eyes wide.

"Like… Katy Perry, then you'll be able to get a good recommendation out of them." Mrs. Knight continued. "And, if you managed to get over your nervousness with Griffin, Kelly, and Gustavo, then some band members around your age, shouldn't be a problem."

"You're forgetting one thing though, mom." Katie piped up.

"What's that, sweetie?" Mrs. Knight asked with a slightly wary sigh, turning to her daughter.

"They have to bring Carlos with them," with that, Katie pointed her fork at Carlos, who at that point, was shoveling food into his mouth, making sounds of delight as he did so. One his plate was clean; he licked all of his fingers and leaned back in his seat, before letting out another loud burp.

Mrs. Knight tried, and failed, to hold in her look of disgust. "Yeah…" she sucked her lips into her mouth for a second. "Is there any way that you could leave him at home?"

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry for the VERY short chapter, I'm getting back into the swing of updating this one, since I put it on hold for a while. Anyway, I hope that you guys like it, I want to show a bit more about music and stuff and how things progress with BTR's music, which is why I did a chapter that was focused solely on them meeting the other band (DE) and how Mrs. Knight helps them through it. I also thought that it would be cute if she did it over dinner.**

**Uh, what else, oh, my new story Elevate will be up soon, and then I also have one other one that I'm going to put up as well, but that probably won't be until after my SLOD story is finished. (It almost is as it only has 7 chapters left). Other than that, I don't really have much to say. I'm thankful for those that are still reading this story and once again, sorry for the long wait and then the short chapter. But they will get longer.**

**I hope you guys liked it and I'll update again soon.**

**Thanks to **MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, 2lazy2signin, and bballgirl22 **for reviewing.**

**Cheers,**

**-Riles**


	5. When You Meet The Rival Band

**.:Chapter Five – When You Meet The Rival Band:.**

_"Bear patiently with a rival" ~ Ovid_

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><p>"How much do you think an autograph would sell for?" Katie asked as she rummaged through her drawstring bag, making sure she had everything that she needed. "I'm thinking somewhere between 30 or 50 dollars." She looked up from the bag just in time to walk around a man that walked by, carrying large coils of wire over his shoulder. "But it might be more if I can get all of their autographs on one picture rather than separate ones."<p>

"Katie," Mrs. Knight said as patiently as possible. "You don't know them personally, and I think that asking them for autographs and then selling them is really disrespectful and rude." She turned to her daughter. "Now, you can do it to your brother and his friends because you've known them for so long and they basically can't stop you anyway."

"You got that right," James grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you _know_ what she did to my favorite lucky, white v-neck?" He turned to Mrs. Knight with wide eyes and his lower jaw jutting out. "She _stole_ it from my room and _sold_ it to one of her friends back home! And for almost nothing, I'm sure another fan would have bought it for almost 100 dollars."

Kendall, Logan, and Carlos rolled their eyes, letting out short sighs of exasperation, as they followed Gustavo and Kelly across the park through the production of the music video that was being shot that day. They were all nervous, even Gustavo, who seemed to be jumping at every slight sound, as if someone, or Griffin, was going to pop out at him and fire him on the spot. But they also understood his worry; Big Time Rush was going to be his ticket back to the top and if things didn't work out, he was going to be the laughing stock of Hollywood and he (no one for that matter) really wanted that.

"Alright, dogs," Gustavo and Kelly finally turned around to face the boys, Mrs. Knight, and Katie. "Over there," he pointed to a tent that was low to the ground, but high enough underneath it for a grown man to stand up underneath it. "Is where you're going to be meeting the band as well as where you're going to be watching between takes so you can see how a music video gets done." He then pointed at a tent in the opposite direction. "That's where we're going to be, and somewhere else around here is a catering table. I want you to watch and learn and make sure that you make a good impression on these people as you're going to be working with them for as long as we want you to."

"And it will be a good time to work on your PR," Kelly added. "Don't get too into their faces, don't breathe down their necks, and whatever you do, _please_ don't ask them too many questions. They're famous musicians; they might get bugged too easily."

Kendall shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and turned Gustavo and Kelly out as he looked around. A part of him was still uneasy about everything that was going on. Sure, singing was something that he liked to do for fun, but when it came to being thrust into this so fast, he sometimes regretted deciding to go out to LA with his friends. He still missed Minnesota, he missed the cold and the snow, and he definitely missed when the only time he was yelled at was by his hockey coach, who wanted him to get more aggressive on the ice. Now he was just being yelled at for no reason by Gustavo more than one occasion a day.

Now he was being treated like a baby or a little kid on a field trip, being told what _not_ to do, rather than being supported and being told that he was going to have a good time.

_Maybe I can sneak off and go skating and no one will notice. _Kendall thought as he looked around. He tried not to smile when he noticed Carlos' eyes constantly darting over towards the catering table, looking like he was about to dart off towards it at any second.

"So, we'll need to find the manager and everything so…" Kelly looked at her PDA for a moment before she turned around, looking for him. "Oh," she reached out and elbowed Gustavo in the side. "He's over there," she turned back to the boys, Katie, and Mrs. Knight. "Come on, we'll introduce you to their manager while we wait for them to get ready." She led the way across the grass, walking on her tip-toes, so her heels didn't get stuck in the ground.

Mrs. Knight opened her stride and caught up with Gustavo and Kelly. "How long do you think that they're going to be out here today?" She asked them. "They still have to do their homework and projects for today as well as the time that they have to take to work on their recording and everything."

She felt a little self-conscious as she spoke. Almost as soon as they had gotten to LA, Mrs. Knight had become the boys' momager, and while she did like basically being paid for what she did for free back in Minnesota, she still wasn't used to the music industry, having only been out in LA for a few months. She wasn't even sure she was doing her job right, half the time, having to juggle it between that and being an actual mother for Katie, who wasn't in the industry. So whenever she asked questions, she wondered if she was bothering Gustavo and Kelly, even though they were technically on the same team trying to help the boys in any way possible.

"Don't worry, Kacy," Kelly turned and gave her a bright smile. "This is taking over the time that they'll be working in the studio and they won't be on set all day. But, it also depends on how much they get done with the filming in the next couple of hours."

"So, can we find out what band we're working with now?" James asked, pulling his long hair out of his face. "I don't think I can take the suspense anymore."

"Eh, I _guess_ we can tell you now," Gustavo grunted in reply, rolling his eyes. "You're going to be working with the DarkElements; a band of five siblings Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney. The youngest is 9 and the oldest is 16. They wear specific colors to tell them apart because they're two sets of twins and their little brother." He stated, looking distracted. All of a sudden, he stood up straight and walked over to a man that was sitting in a folding chair, looking a little bored. "Not sleeping on the job are you?"

Robert Jackson looked up, his grey eyes flicking over the group as he slowly smiled. He got to his feet, unfolding his 5"10 frame and smiled at Gustavo. "Possibly, I'm so used to this it's a cake walk." He replied with a slight smirk. "But I can't expect you to know that, you haven't worked in almost 10 years."

"Nine." Gustavo corrected.

"Who's counting?" Robert gave a short shrug and a smile. He then gave a bright smile to Kelly. "Nice to see you again," he then looked over at Mrs. Knight, his eyebrow twitching upwards for a second before a charming smile slid onto his face. "You must be Kacy Knight, I'm Robert Jackson, and I've heard a lot about you from Gustavo and Kelly." He then turned to the others. "And you guys must be Big Time Rush and…" he trailed off as he shot a dismissive look towards Katie.

"Katie," she supplied after a minute, a serious look sliding onto her face. "And don't act like you actually want to know me or become my friend. You're part of the industry; I know all of the tricks."

"Please," Mrs. Knight reached out and placed a hand over Katie's mouth, pulling her back a few steps. "Don't take anything that she has to say, seriously. She just has a tough exterior and everything, hard to meet new people. You know how it is…" she trailed off, not sure if she should have said that. She just assumed that he had kids, he seemed like he did, but still. There was the chance that he didn't.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Robert replied with a wave of his hand, seeming to know what she was thinking. "I actually do have some kids of my own," he paused for a moment, studying her face. "They're the bad that your boys are going to be working with."

"Your kids are the band?" Carlos repeated, his eyes popping wide open. "Wow," he slowly nodded, obviously impressed. "You must be really proud."

"It's hard not to be." Robert replied with a nod.

Gustavo let out a snort and Kendall couldn't help but roll his eyes as well. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about this guy was already starting to bug him. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that he had an air of arrogance around him, or if it was because he seemed to know what to say exactly when to say it. Of course, the way that he was looking at his mother didn't help things much either. He had seen that look before, from the many men that had obviously been interested in his mother, but this was annoying him even more than usual.

_Calm down, Kendall, you hardly know the guy. And if he's the manager of the band you're working with, you're going to be seeing a lot of him. _Kendall reminded himself.

"So, I'm sure that you guys want to meet the band," Robert said as he turned to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie. He then turned and pointed over his shoulder to the tent that Gustavo had pointed out before. "They're over there; just hanging out a bit before they go into hair and makeup. Go ahead and say 'hi'." He gave an odd smile. "They're excited to be working with you."

"And they're excited to be working with your kids as well," Katie jumped in, suddenly very optimistic and outgoing, a complete 180 from her seriousness before. She placed her hands on Kendall's lower back and started to push him in the direction that Robert had pointed. "C'mon, let's go."

"What's your rush?" Logan asked Katie as they slowly stared to walk over to the tent. "Just a second ago, you seemed like you didn't want to be here."

"That was before I knew that you guys were working with the DarkElements!" Katie replied with an excited smile. "I mean, I thought that it was them at first, when Gustavo said that they were really famous in Australia and stuff, but I wasn't exactly sure until he just confirmed it."

"You've heard of them?" Carlos asked, looking around at all of the tents and equipment around him. He made a whimpering sound and placed his hands on his stomach as it growled loudly. Obviously he was missing the catering tent.

"You _haven't_?" Katie replied, her eyebrows rising. "They're, like, the hottest thing in their home…country as well as New Zealand, Europe, Japan, and some parts of South America!" She moved her hands from her brother's back and grabbed her drawstring bag. "Their autographs are going to go for so _much_ more now."

"Katie," Logan stated as Kendall grabbed his sister's bag. "Do you ever think about anything _but _money?" He turned to look at her, and effectively, wasn't watching where he was going. He didn't notice a girl in front of him until he walked right into her, causing her to drop a notebook to the ground and fall onto her back. "Oh, I'm _so_ sorry." He cried, his mouth and eyes widening at the same time. He darted forward and grabbed onto her arms, lifting her to her feet. "I'm sorry."

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" she snapped in disgust, her upper lip curling. She brushed off the back of her pants as she lifted her blue eyes and glared at him. Then her eyes went to Kendall, James, Carlos, and Katie's faces, the glare never leaving her face.

_Geez, what's her problem? _James asked himself, but he made himself look right back at her. _Better put on a good impression, maybe we're be working with her sometime later. _

"I-I was paying attention to where I was going." Logan stammered, taken aback at the sharpness of her turn.

"That much is obvious!" the girl snapped back, an accent reaching her voice, as she checked her hands and legs to make sure that she wasn't bleeding. "Do you ever walk much, Yank?" She placed her hands on her hips and looked him up and down. "It's not that hard!"

"I'm sorry." Logan repeated.

"You already said that."

"Hey," Kendall held out a hand, coming to Logan's aid. "You don't have to yell at him, he didn't see you, it was an accident." The girl looked at him and then smirked, as if being able to look through him. That's how Kendall felt at least, as if she knew everything about him before he had to say anything and that was unnerving.

Logan was taken aback by her harsh tone and he studied her, curiously. Long hair with a single purple streak, dark blue eyes, small frame, and from what he could see quickly, she had a scar in her eyebrow. When she looked up at him and glared, he could see little freckles on her cheeks that were so light he almost missed them. If anything, she looked…familiar.

Logan looked down at his feet and grabbed the notebook that she had dropped and quickly picked it up, holding it out to her, noticing the doodles on the front. "Here, you dropped-"

"You didn't look in it, did you?" she demanded, looking more curious than angry now, quickly snatching the book from his hand so fast he almost got a paper cut. She looked like she was going to punch him out if he did, so Logan was glad that he didn't even bother looking.

"No," he quickly shook his head. "I just saw it on the ground and picked it up." He held it out even further. "Here you go." He added.

"Thanks," the girl hesitated before taking it from him. She slapped the notebook against her hand for a minute, tilting her head to the side, looking at them all again. She then turned her head to the side, calling over her shoulder. "Hey guys, come here!" She shouted.

"What?" a masculine voice called back.

"The band is here!" She replied.

Carlos exchanged glances with the other boys. Katie, on the other hand, her eyes seemed to have brightened even more as soon as she spotted the girl. But Kendall, Logan, and James looked as confused as he did. Surely she couldn't be who they were going to be working with. The band that they were going to be working with was full of boys. _What's going on? I'm so confused._

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie watched as four other teenagers about their age walked over to them and stood next to the girl, looking right back at Big Time Rush, blank expressions on their faces. Then the one with spiked blonde hair spoke up. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"Maybe they're intimidated," the second girl replied with a smirk and a slight eye roll, before nudging the first girl on the shoulder with her own. "It looks like Rhu really scared them." The amused looked then left her face and she looked serious. "Might as well get the awkward introductions out of the way." She raised a hand. "I'm Riley, that's Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney." She pointed down the line of her brothers and sister, who either nodded or gave a short wave once their name was called.

"Hey," James reached out a hand. "I'm-"

"We know who you are," Patrick, the one with the blonde streaks in spikes interrupted with an amused smile. "You're James Diamond; born in July, a little over six feet tall. Have been singing since you were two or three, part of the chorus at your old high school, played hockey even though you didn't like to get hit in the face, and you were the one that originally wanted to come out to LA to become famous."

"How'd…" James blinked rapidly, his arm slowly moving back to his side. "How did you know that? Have you been stalking me?"

"It's not stalking," Rhuben spoke up, putting her hands behind her back, looking serious. "It's research. In this industry, you have to do research on whoever you are or are going to potentially work with."

"Just like you," Riley spoke up, pointing to Kendall. "Are Kendall Knight. You're 16 years old, just like your friends are, have been playing hockey since you could walk, the captain of your high school's hockey team since you were a freshmen, which is a record for your school. Your mother is Kacy Knight, your little sister is Katie," she motioned over to the girl standing by Kendall's side. "You play the guitar, you like to sing, and you weren't the one that wanted to do this in the first place, but eventually changed your mind as long as your friends came with you."

"Carlos Garcia," Patrick spoke up again. "You wear a helmet all the time, you like to eat and you like to have fun. You aren't a great singer or dancer, but you're willing to try anything once. Oh," he gave a small smile. "You're obsessed with corndogs."

"And Logan Mitchell," Rhuben stated. "You're the mature one of your friends, you don't sing very well, you can beat-box, you're the 'voice of reason' of the whole group, you give into peer pressure very easily, are kind of indecisive, and," she looked at Riley out of the corner of her eye. "You used to live in Texas, but moved to Minnesota when you were about 8 or 9."

Logan's eyebrows furrowed together. "How-"he then gave a nervous laugh."The whole research thing, right?" He smile faded when Riley and Rhuben gave each other an odd look, as if trying to decide something. "But," he paused for a moment. "I have to admit, you do look really familiar. Have we…met before?"

"You could say that," Riley replied slowly.

"Could I have your autograph?" Katie suddenly blurted, not being able to stay quiet much longer. "I've been a fan of yours for a long time!" She then moved in front of her brother and his friends. "I have all of your CDs too!" She reached into her drawstring bag and took out a notepad and a pen and shoved it into Noah's hands, causing him to merely look at her. "I can't wait to see how your first one is redone."

"Thanks," Noah replied quietly.

Katie made a face, almost straining to hear him; but she managed to catch it by the way his lips moved. Riley jumped in before she could say anything. "Don't worry about that, he and Syd are kind of shy when it comes to meeting new people." Rhuben shot her a look and Riley just raised her eyebrows in reply.

"But how is that possible?" Carlos asked. "You're in the spotlight, like, all the time back home aren't you? How can you by shy with a lot of attention on you?"

"Trust me, it's not hard," Rhuben murmured as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked over at her father, who was talking with Gustavo, Kelly, and Mrs. Knight. Her eyes narrowed for a moment before Patrick whacked her arm and then shoved his watch into her face. "Oh, we have to go to hair and make-up," she said.

"Come on and we can show you how everything is done." Riley said and then put her arm around Sydney's shoulders before pushing him in front of her and the five of them led BTR and Katie over to the make-up trailer. It was bigger than other make-up trailers that had been seen in movies and once they all stepped inside, they knew why.

James looked around, almost in euphoria, as he looked at the industrial sinks, hair driers, and flat irons that lined one wall of the trailer. There were many shampoo and conditioner bottles as well as boxes of hair dye and hair accessories on that wall as well. On the other wall were as many make-up brushes and jars that any of them had ever seen before. There were also four women and one man in the trailer, waiting for the DarkElements to go in and get started. If there was a heaven, and he was sure that there was, this would be it.

"I can't wait until we make our own music video," James said with a grin, his eyes shining with excitement as he looked around the make-up trailer, before he turned to his friends. "It's going to be so cool!"

"It is." Kendall agreed with a smile.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hey, sorry for having you wait so long for an update. School and stuff you know? Anyway, I'm on Spring Break now, and I had been trying to update this since Friday, and of course THAT didn't happen. Hahaha, anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter. I wanted them to have a different, sort of realistic way for BTR to meet DE, and I figured that if it was when they were working on a music video, it would show it a bit more. Plus, if they're famous in Australia as well as a majority of the eastern hemisphere, it wouldn't make sense as to how at least one of them didn't already know who the DarkElements were (apart from Logan) so that's why Rhu and I thought that it would make sense if Katie had heard about them before and got a bit start struck. I didn't show them working on the music video (except a little bit) because it's going to go more into that process in my other story 'Elevate' because that has a REALLY big look in the music industry.

Uhm, what else, I think after this, some of the chapters will closely resemble the ones from the first story, so you'll probably notice that. Other than that, I hope I don't make you wait as long for a new update next time.

I hope you guys liked it and I'll update again soon. To those that will say something (and I'm sure they will) I know that Mrs. Knight's name is Jennifer; I just like calling her Kacy because I like the 'K' theme for all of their names.

Thanks to** MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, 2lazy2signin, and bballgirl22** for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. When You're Intimidated

**.:Chapter Six – When You're Intimidated:.**

"_I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt.__" ~__Robert Cormier_

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><p>Kendall yawned as he picked up his filled cereal bowl and walked it over to the table that was set up in the middle of apartment 2J, where his sister was eating her breakfast. It was probably one of the few times that they could spend by themselves since they had gotten to LA. If Kendall wasn't working, he was either doing homework or sleeping from working so hard. Katie was generally out doing something to make money or to bother Mr. Bitters, so they weren't able to spend as much bonding time as they wanted to. But while their mother was out getting groceries, Logan was doing home (extra credit no doubt) Carlos was asleep, and James was at the gym, they were going to be taking advantage of it the best way possible.<p>

Kendall rubbed his face as he grabbed the newspaper and looked it over, quickly flipping to the sports section. As well as not being able to hang out with Katie much, he wasn't able to watch as many sports games that he wanted to. It was probably the only time that he hated working for Gustavo, he worked hard and all he got in reply was massive exhaustion and getting yelled at.

_But it's a really cool dream and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. _Kendall thought to himself as he scanned the newspaper. _Even with Gustavo being a jerk._

An advertisement caught his attention and he looked up at his sister. "Hey Katie, check this out, there's another commercial that you can try out for." Kendall pointed out as he shoved a newspaper towards his sister. Katie picked it up and briefly glanced at it. She made a face as her brother ate his cereal loudly.

"Hey garbage disposal, can't you eat a little quieter?" she snapped, slapping down the newspaper. Kendall looked over at her, an annoyed expression on his face that melted into a smug smile.

"You're lucky that I'm the one that's eating breakfast with you," he replied before swallowing thickly. "Because if it was Carlos, you'd be grossed out."

"That's a good point," Katie sighed in reply. If it was anything food related, there was no way that Carlos was able to eat quietly or eat without making a mess. "Anyway, this is a commercial for deodorant and they need someone to play a lacrosse girl." She explained pointedly.

Kendall shrugged. "So?"

"So," Katie rolled her eyes. "Remember what happened the _last_ time I played lacrosse?"

Kendall made a face as he thought about it. She had been playing it as a parks and rec team, while Kendall had been playing hockey. There was a game, and a girl that was about Katie's age, but significantly taller than her, had called her a shrimp or something, it didn't really matter. It doesn't take much for Katie to get mad. Either way, she had gotten back at her pretty quickly. As soon as the referee started the game, Katie took her lacrosse stick and hit the girl across the face. She was ejected from the

"Oh yeah," Kendall winced. "Three stitches in the side of her head." He shook his head in dismay. "Probably the fastest that you ever got kicked out a sport." He cleared his throat. "But this is an audition; you're not actually going to play." He took another bite of cereal, milk dribbling down his chin as he lifted his head once more. "Where's mom?" He asked through a full mouth.

"Grocery shopping," Katie replied as she reached out and tossed a napkin into her brother's face. She rolled her eyes before giving him a pointed look. "You and the rest of your merry band of bozos have eaten practically everything in sight."

"You mean our _boy band_ of bozos." Kendall corrected.

"Don't do that."

"Sorry."

"DOGS!"

Kendall winced, accidentally flinging his spoon up, sending milk and cereal everywhere. Katie let out a huff and started to clean up the mess as Logan and Carlos came barreling out of their rooms, looking around wildly. Every time they heard Gustavo call them like that, they knew that he wasn't too far away. And from the sound of his voice, it seemed like he was very mad about something, and when Gustavo was mad, you found a way to stay away from him. The boys didn't have much of a chance to move before Gustavo came barreling through the front door of the apartment, dragging James by the shirt collar behind him.

"Sorry guys," Kelly apologized as she appeared behind her partner, as usual, she was holding onto her palm pilot. "Gustavo is a _little_ upset today. You see, Robert decided to to pay him a visit today."

Carlos, obviously having forgotten the story behind the two men shrugged innocently. "So?"

"So, that made Gustavo upset." Kelly replied as if it was obvious. She studied Carlos and narrowed her eyes. "You don't remember anything that we talked about, about him, do you?" She sighed as Carlos shook his head. "I'll explain one more time." She said as patiently as possible. "You see, Gustavo and Robert are rivals in the music industry, and have been for years. They always try to outdo each other. Because of this, they want your bands to be rivals. Meaning that whatever they do, you're going to have to do ten-fold." She held up a finger. "But Gustavo wants to keep an eye on them, as well as help you guys, which is why we hired them to help, and which is why you met them last weekend on the set of their music video."

The boys slowly nodded. It was a really good experience for them, to be at the music video shoot. It was cool to see how things were done and it just made them that much more excited that they were potentially going to be shooting their own soon. But it was weird at the same time; no matter how hard they tried to get the DarkElements to talk to them, they didn't really say much. Sydney didn't say a word; he just sat there, looking at them curiously. Noah talked every now and then, but it was so quiet that they had to staring to hear. It was Riley, Rhuben, and Patrick that talked the most, but it seemed like each time they were about to say something, they looked around as if making sure that no one was listening to them, or chose their words carefully before they said anything; like they were about to say something wrong. That aside, they still had a lot of fun.

"That's right!" Gustavo barked and moved over to Big Time Rush, taking off his sunglasses and glaring at them. "But I want to make sure that you're better than them. I want to make sure that you're so good that I rub his face in my success while he cries in the corner," he started to laugh evilly as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie all exchanged odd glances.

"I don't think it needs to go that far," Robert said as he reached into the apartment and lightly knocked on the door to get their attention. "But you always did have a big imagination, Gustavo." He, being a bit taller than Gustavo, reached out and rubbed the top of Gustavo's balding head.

Gustavo gritted his teeth together, his eyes narrowing into slits, before he slapped Robert's hand away. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"I came to see you guys, actually," Robert replied as he turned his grey eyes to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. He paused. "I was wondering if your mother was home."

"She's out doing some shopping," Katie interrupted as she stepped in front of her brother and his friends. Robert looked down at her, his eyes holding mild curiosity. "And before you try to sweet talk me with the 'little girl' comments," she used air-quotes around the words. "Just know they're not going to work. So," she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. "Why don't you just go head and tell us why you're _really_ here."

"Katie!" Kendall hissed, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "I'm sorry about that," he apologized quickly. But most of him was proud. His little sister was never afraid to talk down to someone that was older than her, and the look on Robert's face when she did it was very amusing.

Looking at Robert Jackson, you would see a guy that's very intimidating, and he probably knew it. Standing at 6' 2", he was a little bit shorter than James, but held a sense of arrogance around him. With his brown hair and grey eyes as cold as steel, and looking like he didn't smile much, they knew that he was a serious man. Even when they were at the video shoot and he was conversing with the adults, it seemed like the crew were too scared to go near him or talk to him; while he would acknowledge you as if he was your best friend.

"Yes, well," Robert cleared his throat. "I wanted to invite you guys to dinner, so we can discuss what my band is going to be doing with yours and the like," he looked at Gustavo and Kelly. "And so we can discuss scheduling." He then addressed everyone in the room. "Plus, there are a few rules that I would like to go over, and I'm sure that your…dogs…can benefit from them especially when it comes to how they act in public and how the media portrays them." He slowly smiled at Gustavo. "You wouldn't want their nickname to stick, would you?"

Gustavo growled, low in his throat.

Kendall took a step forward and stuck out his hand. "We'll talk to our mom about it, but I'm sure it'll be fine." His voice was a little wobbly, lacking confidence. "We're glad to be working with you."

Robert looked him right in the eyes for a moment, causing Kendall to look away, not able to look directly at him. He then took out his hand and grabbed Kendall's, squeezing it in his grip so hard that it started to hurt his hand. "I'm glad to be working with you too." He gave another slow smile, squeezed Kendall's hand one last time, before letting go, whirling on his heels, and striding out of the apartment.

"I _hate _that guy." Gustavo growled.

_I can see why. _Kendall thought as he rubbed his hand.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Just so you guys know, I'm making the chapters for this long or short depending on how I want them to go. This is a direct part from With Friends Like These I: Big Time Rivalry, with a few things that have been changed. It's basically a filler chapter, but it's still very important, because I wanted to put something else in before I got to the parts where the story moves faster. So, I hope that you guys like it anyway.

Oh and I don't know if you saw my twitlonger yesterday, but here's basically what it was about: I am two/three chapters away from finishing my SLOD story Mystic Melody and that gives me some space to upload some new BTR stories. But I'm having trouble deciding how many and which ones. The ones that I'm thinking of doing for now is a (so far) untitled Wiley story, Wait For Me (where BTR go to Aus), Ski Trip (self explanatory), Words, Hands, Hearts (a PatrickxKatiexNoah story), I'll Take a Stab At It, Minnesota Wild, Someone Like You, and also the co-writes with Rhubes; American Cowboy, and Let It Out. I'm stuck deciding on all of those, but I also want to put up a Kingdom Hearts story that I've wanted to do for a while (Thanks to Rhubes for the idea!)

So if you guys could help me out, you would be the BEST people on the planet! I've been thinking about this for a LONG time, and that's the only reason why I haven't uploaded anything new yet.

So help there would be great. Again, I hope you like this chapter and I'll update again soon.

Thanks to** MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, MiiMyselfandTime, and 2lazy2signin, **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	7. When You Have Hopes And Expectations

**.:Chapter Seven – When Your Hopes Don't Live Up To Your Expectations:.**

_Dreaming is one thing, and working towards the dream is one thing, but working with expectations in mind is very self-defeating.__ ~Michael Landon_

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><p>"I'm so jealous of you guys!" Jo Taylor sighed as she leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest.<p>

"Why?" Logan snorted as he picked up his smoothie, and brought it to his mouth, taking a sip. He placed the smoothie back on the table, resting his arms next to it. "They were actually pretty rude when we first met them…" he frowned, a curious expression sliding on his face.

"What's that look for?" Stephanie King questioned, looking up from her digital camera.

"Oh," Kendall waved a hand. "Logan keeps saying that he thinks that Riley and Rhuben from the band are familiar to him," he rolled his eyes a little. "But he can't seem to remember where." He shot a smug look over to his smart friend, who waved a hand at him in reply.

Having not been able to go with their friends to the music video shoot to meet the DarkElements themselves, Jo, Stephanie, and Camille Roberts had demanded that the boys meet up with them at the Palm Woods pool so they could hang out and get the gossip about what had happened that day. Kendall was mildly surprised to find out that they were big fans of the Australian band as well, each holding a copy of their first five CDs as well as some posters. Kendall and the guys were more of a fan of pop and rap music than anything else, and they didn't listen to much rock music, so it wasn't that much of a surprise that the girls had heard of them and he and his friends had not.

Plus, they were girls, so they were more likely to listen to different kinds of music or enjoy different bands because they think the members are cute.

"No, I _swear_ I've seen them before…" Logan squeezed his eyes shut as he thought long and hard about it. "That's it!" His eyes popped open and he looked guilty as he slapped his hands over his face. "I did know them before; I lived next to them when I lived in Texas!"

_Logan's eyebrows furrowed together. "How-"he then gave a nervous laugh."The whole research thing, right?" He smile faded when Riley and Rhuben gave each other an odd look, as if trying to decide something. "But," he paused for a moment. "I have to admit, you do look really familiar. Have we…met before?"_

_"You could say that," Riley replied slowly._

"I'm such an idiot!" Logan slapped himself on the forehead, missing the amused looks on James's, Kendall's, and Carlos' faces as well as the excited ones on Jo's, Camille's, and Stephanie's. "I don't see how I didn't realize that." He leaned back in his seat. "We used to play together all the time, too."

"Yes, how could someone as smart as you be so stupid?" Carlos asked as he shook his head, his smile growing wider. Kendall and James laughed as Logan rolled his eyes.

If there was anything Logan hated the most (other than peer pressure and his indecisiveness being pointed out) it was when people made fun of him for having a moment when he didn't remember something. Just because he was so mart, it didn't mean that he didn't make mistakes like everyone else did. It was when it was rubbed in his face that it got on his nerves.

"Well, spill the dirt," Camille reached out and shook his arm. "How did you meet them? Do you still talk to them? E-mail? FaceTalk? MyFace? ScuttleButter?"

Logan made a face, hating how all of the attention was on him and wishing that he didn't say anything. He wasn't even sure if they even remembered him, they insinuated that they did. _But then that wouldn't explain why Rhu was so mean to me when I accidentally ran into her. Unless she was having a bad day or something._

"Uh," he thought back about it. "We met the day they moved in, I remember because I had been waiting to see if there were any kids that moved in next door." He noticed Stephanie's raised eyebrows and explained, "I lived in a neighborhood where it was mostly retired people, or just couples getting up there in age." He cleared his throat. "I was minding my own business playing with my Pokémon cards when a kid came up and started to bully me, then they came over, chased him away, and that was it." He answered Camille's other questions. "When I moved, we lost contact, so I haven't seen them in years. I wrote them letters, but I didn't get anything back."

"Dude, they were working on their music and becoming celebrities, of _course_ they were too busy to write back to you!" James stated as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh really?" Jo looked amused. "And how do you know that?"

"I looked them up on Wikipedia and Katie gave me their CDs to listen to," James replied, buffing his nails on the front of his shirt. "If they can do research on us, I can do some research on them. Just don't try to find anything about their personal life, there's nothing on Wikipedia about that, or anywhere else for that matter." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees a euphoric smile on his face. "I just can't believe that we're going to be working with them."

"Neither can I," Kendall remarked.

Carlos frowned as he turned to his blonde friend, giving him a look that was nothing less than pure innocence and curiosity. "What do you mean, Kendall? You sound like it's a bad thing that we're going to be working with them.

"With them, that's fine," Kendall replied as he raised a hand, suddenly feeling all eyes on him. "I'm actually really excited to see how they can help us in the music industry as they're working on trying to make it big over here."

"Yeah," Jo pushed her blonde hair out of her brown eyes. "I get what you mean, it's like, they're starting all over again, and starting fresh, like you guys are, but they have the experience at the same time."

"Exactly." Kendall took a large sip of his own smoothie.

"So then what's the problem?" Stephanie asked as she lifted her digital camera and took a shot of a boy doing a canon ball into the pall.

"Working with their Dad-slash-Manager I think is going to be the problem." Kendall grimaced and rubbed his hand, as if he could feel Robert's grasp on him once again. "He seems like he can be…I don't know…kind of intimidating. Like he always gets his way and never hears the word 'no'." He shook his head. "I mean, we're even going to dinner with them tonight, so we can go over some rules about our working arrangements." He sighed. "It wouldn't surprise me if we have to sign another contract."

"Hold on," Camille held up a hand. "I thought that Dak Zevon had a contract to help you guys."

"Why do you call him by his first and last name?" Logan asked, turning to her. "He's our friend."

"They're still star struck," James supplied. "When we get famous, they're going to have to call us by our first and last names as well."

"Not me," Carlos smiled warmly. "You guys can still call me Carlos or whatever when I get rich and famous." He said to the girls. Stephanie gave a small smile as she rolled her eyes. "Unlike these bozos," he jerked his thumb at his friends. "I won't leave you behind."

"And to answer your _other _question," Kendall turned the attention back to him. "Dak is still working with us, as that's part of his contract with Rocque Records, but because he's moving on more towards Broadway shows, and big musical productions and everything, he's not going to be around as much as usual. Come to think of it, he was the one that suggested that the DarkElements work with us."

"_He _knows them too?" Jo's eyes widened.

"Yeah, apparently he worked with them when they first came to the US." Kendall shrugged, seemingly unimpressed, or he was just hiding it well.

"So…" Camille nonchalantly drew a circle on the table. "Do you think….we could, you know, ever, maybe, meet them?"

"Why not?" Kendall shrugged. "They're coming over to the PalmWoods today so we can get to know them a bit better before that business dinner tonight." He looked at his watch. "They should be here any minute actually."

Jo, Camille, and Stephanie looked at each other and then started to screech and squeal so loud in excitement that it caused the boys to slap their hands over their ears. It even got so bad for Carlos that he leaned back in his seat to get away from the noise that he ended up tilting back too far and spilled out of it onto the pool deck.

"Well, I really didn't expectto have _that _as our welcome." Patrick commented as he and his brothers and sisters strolled over to the group as they sat on the pool deck."At least, not in an arena or a venue." He added with a light tilt of his head.

"I'm sure you don't get tired of it," James said as he reached out and helped Carlos and his chair back to their feet.

"You'd lose that bet." Riley remarked, her hands in the back pockets of her black capris.

Logan blinked and exchanged glances with his friends; they all were probably wondering the same thing. What did she mean and why would she say it like that? She was a famous Rockstar, how could he not get used to the screaming fans around them. Jo, being the kind of girl that always spoke her mind, was the one that asked that question out loud.

"How can you not be used to it?" She asked, grabbing all five sets of blue eyes to turn and look at her. "I mean, you're rock stars, you're _celebrities_ you probably get people chasing you down and demanding your autographs and hugs and stuff all the time."

"Ok, well, first thing," Rhuben held up an index finger. "We're _not_ celebrities. We don't have our heads so far up our arses that we can't hear the alarm clock go off in the morning! We don't _want _the constant attention!" She dropped her arm and crossed her arms over her chest. "We're teenagers with a job, that's it."

Kendall scratched his forehead, letting out a slight chuckle. "And the one that you just put in her place is our friend Jo Taylor," he motioned to Camille and then Stephanie. "That's Camille Roberts and Stephanie King. They're big fans of yours."

"Well, you have to excuse Rhubes," Patrick turned to the girls with an easy-going smile on his face. "We just got done with a very stressful day, so anything can set us off." Beside him, Noah nodded, a soft smile gracing his features as well.

"Anyway, guys, this is Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney." Kendall continued.

"I'm Riley, actually," Riley spoke up, after he had called her Rhuben. "And _that's_ Noah." She pointed to her other brother. She raised her right hand in a short wave, turning to the girls. "Nice to meet you all." She stopped and pointed at Jo, her eyes narrowing a little. "You made that video from…North Carolina…covering one of our songs, yeah?"

"Yeah," Jo replied, nodding slowly.

Riley nodded back, before looking over at Rhuben, who raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest. Noah then turned to Kendall. "Where's your sister?" he asked quietly. Kendall turned to him and Patrick quickly asked the question again.

"I'm sure with all of the screeching that these girls did, she'll be by any minute." Kendall replied, his eyes shifting back and forth between his new co-workers and his friends. There was no denying the tension that was there.

Something was definitely off.

"Hey Bella, Hey Landy," Logan greeted with a nervous smile and a short wave.

Rhuben then turned to him, her eyes void of emotion, and then she slowly gave a half smile. "I was wondering when you would remember us." She commented. "We recognized you as soon as we saw your picture, but we weren't sure if you would remember us, you know, after all these years." She scratched the back of her neck.

"Logan was telling us that he knew you guys, but we didn't believe him." Stephanie commented.

"The only thing that you can't believe from him is when he says that he's not indecisive." Rhuben replied. She twisted her mouth to the side, looking at her siblings, wondering what to say now. "You're fans, huh? I didn't think we had many fans over here in the States."

"Isn't that kind of the point that you're here?" Camille asked, wrinkling her nose. "To get a bigger fan base here in the US?"

"Sort of," Riley replied mysteriously. She then looked down as Sydney lightly started to tug at the bottom of her shirt. "What is it, Syd?" He looked over at the girls and motioned for her to bend down. She did so and he whispered something into her ear, she stood up straight, gave him a look and then turned back to the girls. "Sorry, he's kind of shy." She apologized. "He wanted me to tell you that you three are very pretty."

Sydney smiled and nodded.

"Aww," the three girls cooed.

"Wow," James scratched the back of his head, looking one part annoyed, and two parts amused. "I've really got to step up my game, or this little guy is going to beat me out."

"Yeah, you _wish_ that you had a chance with one of us." Stephanie shot back, causing Jo, Camille, Kendall, Logan, James, and Carlos to start laughing. Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney merely looked at each other, as if they were thinking that the others were weird or that they didn't get the joke in the first place.

"What a burn." Patrick remarked.

"So we're supposed to be getting to know each other," Riley said as the laughter died down. "We're just going to get some smoothies first and get this started." She pointed over her shoulder as they started to walk away.

"Well," Jo sniffed as she sat back down in her seat. "They were kind of mean."

"They're like that when they first meet people," Logan reassured her. "They were the same way when they first moved to Texas." He and the others sat down as well. "From what I can understand, they go back and forth from the US to Australia about every three months or so, so they might not be happy about having to leave their home so much." He looked around earnestly.

"No," Jo shook her head. "I mean, they seem like they're really full of themselves. I mean, I'm not sure about the guys because they didn't say much, but Riley and Rhuben really seemed like they were trying to prove that they aren't celebrities when they are."

"But over here, they're not," James reminded her. He reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder, trying to get her to calm down. "Plus, it's the first meeting jitters, I mean, you couldn't have not been nervous when you first met me." He flashed his pearly whites at the girls, causing the other boys to roll their eyes.

"Believe it or not, James, but not everything has to do with how good looking you are." Carlos said as he rolled his eyes.

"No, it doesn't." James shot back.

Carlos threw a balled up napkin at him. James frowned, and tossed it back and the two ended up getting sucked into a slap fight. Used to their antics, Kendall and Logan just ignored him.

"I think Logan's right, Jo," Camille agreed. "They're just meeting the people that they're going to be working with, they just met us, and they're, somewhat, new to the US. They're away from their comfort zone; it's probably hard for them." She nudged her blonde friend as Stephanie nodded. "Put yourself in their shoes."

"I don't know," Jo hesitated.

"They really _are_ great when you get to know them," Logan insisted. "Give them time."

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><p><strong>AN: **Ok, so I had in my mind for a while that out of everyone that they met, Jo might not have liked Riley and Rhuben at first. Sure, she would be stark struck and want to try and get to know them, but I also think that she would be the one that is the most put off about their being standoffish and trying to push people away from them. So I thought that she would be the one that was the most hesitant about continuing to try and be their friend, especially if they were going to be working with Big Time Rush so much, so that's what the point of this chapter was.

I also brought in the fact that the Jacksons _hate_ (and I mean absolutely hate) to be called celebrities, as they still only see themselves as teenagers with a job and they're very normal once you go to know them. (Of course it will take a long time for any of them to get to know the Jacksons). Uh, what else, oh, I think that it would be a good idea that Logan didn't remember Riley and Rhuben at first, due to the fact that it had been so long, but then again, with his being so smart, it could have just slipped my mind, which is why I did a bit of both in this chapter.

I hope I showed a good amount of friendship as well as some humor in this chapter as well as the mystery that (always) seems to surround my characters. So I hope you guys liked the chapter and sorry for the long wait!

All chapters after this are longer.

Thanks to** MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, and 2lazy2signin, **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	8. When Managers Don't Get Along

**.:Chapter Eight – When Managers Don't Get Along**

_"A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done" ~ Dwight Eisenhower_**  
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><p>"I'm telling you, this is a very bad idea," Logan stated as he, James, Kendall, Carlos, Kelly, Gustavo, Mrs. Knight, and Katie walked to Red Robin for dinner that night. After Robert had visited them in the PalmWoods to invite them to dinner, had called later to suggest going to Red Robin, so it would be a relaxed atmosphere and no one would feel pressured into anything. "I predict a 100% chance that this is going to go wrong. Big Time." He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets as he looked around, not able to push away the feeling that something bad was going to happen.<p>

"You're just being pessimistic," James stated as he rolled his eyes. He reached up and pulled his hair out of his face, making sure every strand fell perfectly into place. "Besides, we're getting a _free_ dinner in an expensive, Hollywood restaurant."

"James," Kendall looked at his friend oddly. "We're going to Red Robin."

"Ok, then we're getting free dinner in a Hollywood restaurant," James corrected himself before jabbing his fist into Kendall's side. "Don't crush me dreams!" He added viciously.

"That's right!" Gustavo practically shouted as he shoved his fist into the air. "Robert Jackson is being very generous and inviting you guys to dinner to talk about our contracts and everything." He rubbed his hands together gleefully as an evil smile slid onto his face. "So that means that you should order anything you want, no matter how expensive it is. He'll be _glad_ to pay for it."

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said that Gustavo was rivals with that guy," Katie commented to her brother, talking quietly under her breath. She walked walking behind the boys, holding onto her mother's hand. "I bet Gustavo hates him even more than he hates you."

"That wouldn't surprise me," Kendall replied as he shook his head, a small mile was on his face. "But as long as his wrath is pointed towards someone else, we can actually have a bit of fun while we're here."

"Let's go sightseeing, tomorrow," Carlos suggested as he pulled his helmet off of his head to fix his hair. "Ever since we got here, we haven't really been able to see what goes on in Hollywood." He grinned. "Maybe we can go and see the walk of fame."

"Just think," James moved in between Carlos and Logan and sling his arms around their shoulders. "One day you could be walking down the walk of fame and see my start sitting there amongst the greats!" He grinned and tightened his grip on his friends' necks, pulling them tighter into his side. "I can see it now. My star will be beside Will Smith's and Brad Pitt's."

"You're going to have to take Katie with you," Mrs. Knight stated, causing the four boys to stop and look at her with expressions of disbelief.

"What?" Kendall cried. "Why?"

"Because I'm going job hunting tomorrow and she can't stay by herself." Mrs. Knight replied with a raised eyebrow as she looked at the four of them. "And I'm pretty sure that all of you are going to take good care of her."

"Yeah, I guess." Kendall muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck. Mrs. Knight looked at him sternly and he threw his arms into the air. "But mom, we're in LA, why do I _still_ have to let her follow me around! I mean, I'm sixteen for god's sake, don't I get to hang around without her all the time?"

"Mom, I don't want to be babysat by _them_," Katie replied and wrinkled her nose. She tried to hide her disappointment by being snide. Usually Kendall didn't mind if she tagged along with them. But now that they've gotten to LA, they didn't hang out as much as they used to and it was really starting to hurt. _Does he really not want me around anymore? Or is Hollywood already changing him? _Katie stuck her tongue out at the boys. "They're just going to do something extremely stupid and get me in trouble!"

"You two are going to have to deal with it." Mrs. Knight said firmly, in only the way that a mother could.

"We're here!" Gustavo shouted, causing everyone to jump and Kelly to slap her hands over her ears as she glared at her partner. He turned around and smiled an evil glint in his eye. "Now, remember what I said, order anything expensive."

"I'm _so_ going to love this," Carlos declared as he rubbed his hands together before rubbing his stomach as he followed everybody inside the restaurant. "What should I get? The biggest hamburger or just a bunch of little things."

"Carlos, buddy," James put his arm around Carlo's shoulder. "You're going to have a lot of chances to order expensive things from restaurants, we're in Hollywood now, and we're going to live it right."

"Hey, over here!" Gustavo made a grunting sound and waved a hand to the others, letting them know to follow him. A sneer appeared on his face for a half a second, and then it changed into a forced smile as he walked over to Robert. "Glad you could make it," Robert said with a smile as he, Ronan, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney got to their feet as their guests walked over to them.

"It was nice for you to let all of us come," Mrs. Knight smiled as she sat down in her chair, smiling as Robert pushed it in for her. She noticed that she didn't hear anyone else say anything and turned to them. Frowning a little, Mrs. Knight nudged Katie, who blinked and then gave a smile.

"Yeah, it's the first time that I've ever eaten in a place like this!" Katie agreed lamely. She suddenly paused, realizing how stupid hat sounded. "I just…don't think that we have a Red Robin back home," she finished lamely.

"The novelty will wear off," Patrick spoke up as he rolled his eyes a little bit as the others sat down in their seats, allowing him to sit down as well. He leaned forward and placed a hand by his mouth.

"Nice to see you, again." Katie replied with a nod, trying her hardest not to let her excitement get the best of her. She sat up as she picked up her menu, pretending to look over it, trying to act blasé. "Do celebrities come here all the time? Like, Johnny Depp for example?"

"Depends on what time of year it is," Sydney replied helpfully. "But people usually come here when they're with their families or they're trying to get some time off or whatever." He raised and lowered his right shoulder in a shrug. "I mean Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers were here a couple of weeks ago."

"Cool." Katie said as she tried not to beam.

Kendall smiled before nudging his sister on the arm. "You might not be able to see it by the way that she's acting, but the fact that you just said that celebrities come here all the time has probably just made her life." He laughed as Katie frowned and elbowed him in the side. "Ow!"

"Shut up, Kendall." Katie snapped back.

There was a brief moment of silence as every picked up their menus and started to look it over, figuring out what they wanted to eat. When they had figured that out, they continued to sit in silence, still not completely sure what to say. Sure, they had spent a couple of hours at the PalmWoods getting to know the basics about each other, but even then they didn't talk much. Jo, Camille, and Stephanie had taken over most of the conversation, asking question after question about their career and not much else.

"So, uh, do you guys do anything besides music?" Logan asked, trying to break the silence. He turned his attention to Riley and Rhuben, giving a friendly smile, trying to dispel some of the tension that he could feel in the air. "Like, what do you do for fun?"

"We got the beach a lot," Riley spoke up, messing around with a fork, flipping it through her fingers. She set it down and looked over at him. "Surf, make sandcastles, eat. We do that here, mostly. Back home, we don't get a lot of free time, but when we do, we're typically at the beach."

"Don't get her wrong, being in a band is fun," Rhuben cut into the conversation, quickly shooting a look towards her older twin sister. Riley gave her a look in return before resting her elbows on the table, cracking her knuckles loudly. "But there's always a time where you just want to stop working and be a teenager, ya know?"

"But don't worry, I'm sure the great Gustavo Rocque wouldn't push you that hard," Riley sympathized, although her tone held a strong sense of sarcasm. "I mean, what are your schedules like?"

"When we're not in school, we're working." Kendall replied. "It's not that bad, really." He smiled. "I mean, I don't think that I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life, but if I'm with my friends now, why not?"

Logan, Carlos, and James smiled at him, and gave each other high-fives. Riley looked towards her sister, who slightly widened her eyes in reply, and then smirked. Riley smirked back and then turned her brothers. Patrick had his eyebrows raised, Noah had s very tiny smile on his face, and Sydney sucked his lips into his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something, but wouldn't dare to do so.

"So, what were you guys doing before you came out to LA?" Riley asked innocently.

"I _wanted_ to be a doctor," Logan replied sounding wistful. He gave her a smile. "Remember when we wanted to open a doctor's office together?" His smile faded as Riley merely nodded. He shrugged, continuing with what he was saying before. "But I got to admit that this is really cool too."

"We were just a bunch of hockey players in Minnesota," James replied, sounding sheepish. "But this has always been my dream ever since I was a little kid, so I'm glad that with my friends' help its coming true."

"So we've heard. Hockey players, huh? I guess that's basically the only thing that you can do for fun in Minnesota," Rhuben raised an eyebrow, looking interested. "Is that what you wanted to do before?"

"That's Kendall's dream, actually," Carlos replied as he lightly nudged his friend. "Every day he would go around saying- ICE CREAM!" he shouted the word as he noticed a waiter walking by with a large bowl filled with an ice cream sundae. Patrick and Noah exchanged confused glances.

"Ignore him," Kendall rolled his eyes. He lightly shook his head. "We think he was dropped on his head when he was a child."

"That would explain the helmet." Riley replied simply. "Anyway," she picked up her knife and looked at her reflection in it, looking a bit grim as she did so. "You wanted to be a hockey player? Like, professional?"

"Yeah." Kendall nodded.

"So you wanted to be someone who probably would have bad knees, broken bones, and knocked out teeth for the rest of your life?" she asked the questioned slowly, as if she was purposely trying to get a reaction out of him. Kendall opened his mouth to reply, but Robert cut him off.

"Be nice to our guests," he warned his daughter. Riley nodded as she lowered the knife onto the table, keeping her gaze away from him. "You don't want them to think that one of the people that they're going to be working with is rude."

"Why not?" Patrick cracked. "It's true." Riley glared at him and he smiled sweetly in reply. "She has a bad temper." He replied.

"So, we told you about us," Logan changed the subject quickly. Being smart, he felt the tension in the air and wanted to change the subject to a more lighthearted one. "What about you? How did you get started?"

Rhuben opened her mouth to answer, but stopped when she noticed a waiter walking over with a few platters of appetizers. Seeing the annoyed look on Gustavo's face, Robert spoke up with a grin. "I thought that it would be nice to order some appetizers," he explained. "You know, just so we can make our new friends," he looked over at Katie, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James before his eyes rested on Mrs. Knight. "Feel welcome."

"That's nice of you," Kelly replied with a smile. She turned to Gustavo and nudged him. "Wasn't that nice?" Gustavo looked over at her with raised eyebrows and she narrowed her eyes in reply. Silently telling him to get along.

Gustavo cleared his throat and mumbled something before speaking up. "Yeah, that was…_nice_…if you like that sort of thing."

"Don't hurt yourself with that compliment, Gustavo." Ronan warned him as he shook his head. He made a snorting sound as Gustavo turned and discreetly gave him the finger. "Wow, way to be classy." He commented.

"I don't think I've ever seen Gustavo so annoyed." Katie laughed as she watched a red stain spread up Gustavo's neck and into his cheeks.

"Just wait," Patrick rolled his eyes. "If this dinner goes on for much longer, we're probably going to have to call the police." He seemed to be hinting towards something that the others couldn't get. His siblings didn't say anything; they just looked away from Patrick as he slouched down in his seat, messing with his menu.

"To answer your question," Rhuben spoke up."Our oldest brother, Julius, who is finishing up his senior year of high school, was the one that got us into being a band." She looked sad about something. "He used to play the guitar and drums lot and Riley and I always watched." She chuckled good-naturedly. "It must have annoyed him because he ended up teaching us how to play. Eventually, Patrick and Noah wanted to play too so Riley taught him how to play the guitar, before he picked up the bass, and then Noah learned how to play the drums too."

Riley jumped in to continue the story. "So for a while it was the five of us that played in a band for a while, and dad noticed how much we liked music so he went around trying to get us record deals. At first we did a bunch of kids' songs, and then we moved into our own genre of music. But as we got older, Julius decided that he didn't want to be in the band anymore, and we put Sydney into it and that's pretty much where we are now."

"We moved from our home in Australia to LA about two years ago and have been going back and forth from LA to Sydney ever y few months ever since." Rhuben concluded. "Unfortunately, until this year we haven't really had much luck with our music. But, it's starting to go well. We're opening for a small festival tomorrow."

"That's cool." James nodded in reply.

"Just wondering," Kendall asked after a moment, a weird look in his eyes. "But if you moved here only two years ago, then wouldn't your Australian accent still be strong?"

"It depends on our mood and who we're with," Riley replied. "There are times where I want to sound American," she said the last sentence in an almost complete American accent. "And sometimes we get homesick and speak like we used to." She finished in a thick Australian accent. "Around our fans and during interview and all that, we speak in our accent, but if we're around friends from the US, like Dak for example, we mostly speak in our American accent."

"What annoys me, though, is when people think we're British, because they can't tell the difference between the two." Sydney turned to James, who looked sheepish about something. "You were just thinking that, weren't you?" He guessed.

"Me?" he looked shocked. "No! No, no, I can tell the difference."

"I'm sure you can."

Kendall frowned, not liking the tone that they were using with his friends. It was as if they were silently putting them down, as if they didn't think that they were even worthy of being there. He opened his mouth to say something, but was once again cut off as the waiter appeared to take their orders. After ordering, there was another round of uncomfortable silence, and Robert spoke up. His children could see a mischievous glint in his eye and knew that something was about to happen.

"I think that we should get started talking about the rules of our contract and everything, but there's something that I wanted to talk about first," Robert said calmly. "What were your record sales last year?" Robert asked as he swirled his red wine in his glass, sniffing it lightly. Ronan slowly brought his own glass of soda to his mouth, looking like he was trying to decide between saying something and keeping quiet. "I mean, I haven't really heard a hit from a band that _you've_ managed in a while."

"For your information," Gustavo gritted his teeth together, trying to stay calm as long as possible. "I _have_ had a hit in the past few years!" Gustavo raised his voice as he pointed at Robert in-between the eyes. "_Girl to My Heart!_ That's my recent one!"

"I thought it was a really good one, too." Mrs. Knight smiled, trying to keep the peace between the two managers. They ignored her and continued with the conversation.

"Don't even try," Ronan commented as he ran a hand over his face. "You won't be able to get them to stop, trust me; I've had to go through this for years."

"From what?" Robert snorted. "_Nine_ years ago? My daughters were seven when that song was a hit." Kelly rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead, knowing that nothing that was going to be said could stop the two of them. She locked eyes with Ronan and the two smiled at each other, having gone through this together.

"Oh and how old were you?" Gustavo clenched his hands into fists, his face slowly turning beet red. "Forty-One?"

"I'm Thirty-Two actually," Robert smirked and tilted his head to the side. "Two years younger than you are." At this point, everybody was staring as they shot insults back and forth to each other.

"What are you saying?" Gustavo demanded through clenched teeth.

Robert leaned forward and smiled. "You're old."

"Hey!" Mrs. Knight got to her feet, speaking so loudly that the entire restaurant quieted down and turned to see what was going on. "We came here to talk about our kids and how they're going to be working together, not to sit here and watch you insult each other." She placed her hands on her hips. "Now, what we're going to do is we're going to order our food, eat it, talk, and then figure out the contracts and the rules like normal, civilized people. Got it?"

Gustavo nodded rapidly, his eyes wide as if he was a scared child.

Robert rested his chin in his hands as he smiled charmingly at her. "Got it." He replied.

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><p><strong>AN: **So there's not much difference to this chapter than there is to when it was in _Big Time Rivalry_ but I knew that this chapter was going to be in the re-write because it was really important for Robert and Gustavo. Now that this chapter is done, for a while, the next ones will be new chapters as well as new ones mixed in with old scenes.

Thanks to** MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, 2lazy2signin, and bballgirl22 **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	9. When There's A Secret You Don't Know

**.:Chapter Nine – When There's A Secret You Don't Know About**

"_Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.__ " ~Benjamin Franklin_

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><p>"Did he <em>really <em>have to get into a fight with Gustavo like that?" Rhuben asked under her breath as they arrived home that night. She pulled off her jacket and held open her arms, taking her brothers' and sister's coat as well before moving to hang them in the closet. "Normally I find it entertaining but this time it-"

"Was embarrassing?" Sydney guessed. He gave a small smile. "Yeah, you're definitely not the only one that thought so." He giggled a little bit, but then his smile was immediately wiped off of his face as the front door slammed behind him. He gulped and lowered his gaze to the floor, moving his black/blue fringe across his face, slowly turning around to face his foster father.

He knew that Robert had heard what he had just said and now he was going to pay the price for it. Sydney shifted his eyes over to Patrick and Noah, who looked back at him, slowly edging closer to their baby brother.

"You," Robert pointed at Sydney. "Stay there!" He turned to the other four. "You, upstairs!" He barked the order sharply, causing Patrick and Noah to immediately do as they were old. Riley and Rhuben, on the other hand, hesitated; staring back at him. "NOW!"

Riley looked over at Sydney and he just gave a half smile, raising a hand and flashing one finger, four fingers, and then three fingers. She nodded back in reply and looked over at Robert again before they went up stairs as well. Sydney knew that they weren't going to their rooms though; they were just going to sit on the landing and wait.

"Your brain must be really warped if you think _I'm_ the embarrassment." Robert said as he ripped off his jacket. Sydney continued to look at the floor, flinching and shielding his face as Robert heaved his jacket at the small boy. Sydney let out a small whimper at the stinging pain, but refused to make a louder sound, knowing that things would just get worse. "_You're_ the embarrassment!" Robert moved forward and leaned down into Sydney's face, grabbing onto his face with his hand, squeezing it painfully. "You can get any gig you want back in Australia, but here you can't even get a simple dance gig!" He started to squeeze harder. "How do you think that makes me look?"

He shoved Sydney back so hard that he stumbled, desperately trying to keep his balance. His footsteps echoed against the large foyer, but that didn't mask the loud sound of his body hitting the hardwood floor as he finally fell over.

"Sorry," Sydney whispered, pushing the jacket aside. "I'm sorry." He flinched again as soon as the words came out of his mouth. It wasn't going to make things better; it was going to make them worse. He knew that it was going to make things worse. _Oh, why did I just say that? I should have kept my mouth shut!_

Sydney lifted his head, his eyes growing wide as Robert glared down at him. He slowly stared to push himself backwards as Robert slowly started to stalk towards him, his footsteps sounding menacing with each step. When Robert was on top of him, Sydney squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head to the side, just as Robert reached out and smacked him on the face.

"Ow!" he cried, before he could stop himself. He moved his hands up to block his face, and Robert shoved them away before hitting him square in the face. Sydney felt his lips hit his teeth and then felt blood in his mouth.

"No, no, please don't. I'll do anything. Don't hit me again, please" the pleadings fell on deaf ears as the blows continued to rain upon his small frame. Rain really shouldn't be used to describe it, though. Sydney found the rain to be soothing, comforting, a sort of spiritual experience, and this was anything but.

White stars burst behind his closed eyelids as he curled up into a ball to protect himself. He was no longer begging for it to stop, instead he was pleading for the darkness to take him. Pleading to fall into the place where he felt no pain, felt nothing at all. Some days the darkness took him faster than others, he prayed today was one of those days. If Robert stopping beating him long enough to listen he would have heard him praying to God; begging for it to stop. It was ironic really; he had never been to church, never really considered himself religious (if anything he was an atheist) and had read the Bible probably twice. He hadn't thought about pleading to God to help him much; he had done it once and stopped when he realized it didn't work.

But he was trying again now…

Finally, the beating stopped. He cracked open an eye and looked up at Robert. The older man sucked back through his nose and then leaned forward, parting his lips. Sydney felt something hot and slimy hit his cheek and he closed his eyes again. He had just been spat upon. It had happened before, but it never really registered in his mind about it until now, after seeing the intense loathing on Robert's face.

Robert looked down at him with disgust before walking forward and disappearing around the corner. Seconds later, Sydney heard the TV turn on. He slowly pushed himself up into a ball. _The worst thing about this is that when he wakes up tomorrow, he's not going to remember what happened._

Sydney got to his feet, slowly straightening his clothes as his siblings quietly crept back down the stairs towards him. Sydney's eyes welled up with tears as Patrick put an arm around his shoulders, gently rubbing them, but he didn't let the tears fall.

He was ok, and he was always going to be ok as long as he was around his brothers and sisters, his only sense of comfort.

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><p><strong>AN: **This was originally supposed to be a longer chapter and it was supposed to be about something different, but then I read on a tumblr site (I don't have one) that if you're going to have someone have abuse as a back story, ACTUALLY MAKE IT HAPPEN. I didn't do it a lot during the first run of WFLT so I thought of putting it in this story a lot. So that's where this chapter came along, sorry the others weren't in it, I thought that it would be fine for a small scene to break up the pace of the story for a bit.

Sorry for the wait and I hope you guys liked it! :D There won't be as long of a wait for the next update, promise. Also, I hope no one was offended with my mentioning of God and being an atheist and everything, if so, let me know and I'll fix/change it.

Thanks to** MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, and 2lazy2signin, **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	10. When You Know How To Hide A Secret

**.:Chapter Ten – When You Know How to Hide a Secret**

"_He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.__ " ~Ralph Waldo Emerson_

**A/N: **Just in case anyone's confused, this is a flashback chapter.

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><p>"Miss Jackson?"<p>

Riley and Rhuben both looked up, startled, at the sound of their names. "Yes?"

A relatively young nurse stepped into the room hesitantly, and the twin girls recognized her from some of their previous visits to the doctor's office. Rhuben let out a sigh as she slowly shook her head. She knew what the nurse was going to say, it always happened eventually; and when it did, they changed doctor's offices quickly.

"Hello, I don't know if you remember me, but I've been you're nurse before. And I was just wondering . . ." She let her voice trail off, and met the girls' gazes to gauge their reactions before continuing. But they just stared back at her, as if silently urging her to continue, daring her to do it. "Is everything alright at home?" Their faces remained expressionless, and the nurse pressed on. "Or are you having any problems with your boyfriends?"

Riley just shook her head and shrugged. "No. We're just clumsy." The words were bitter to their ears, but the nurse just nodded. "We don't have boyfriends."

"Well, you should be more careful." The older woman's voice was brisk as she headed out of the room. She looked at the twin girls over her shoulder before disappearing into an examining room. "People are starting to wonder."

Their father appeared behind them; just in time hear the nurses parting words. He always seemed able to do that. He was also so quiet, so cunning, as if he could always tell whenever they were up to something that could anger him.

"What was that?" To the casual observer, the question would have been mildly curious, but the two knew that they were treading on dangerous ground. Very dangerous ground.

"She wondered why we are here so much." Rhuben's voice was bitter and she hated herself for it.

"What did you say?" The tone of his voice never changed, causing a chill to make its way down his two daughters' spines.

"We told her we're clumsy." Riley couldn't keep all of the exasperation out of her voice. She'd been through this at least a hundred times before. It was the same thing each time. A teacher or an adult, even most strangers would ask them if something was wrong, and she would just continue to lie over and over again, not wanting to endanger anyone else if they got in the middle of things.

It was almost second nature now.

"Watch it." Robert didn't even bother to make his voice casual. He looked around, making sure that no one was watching them before taking a menacing step towards them, lowering his voice. "_Never_ take that tone of voice with me. Especially in public!"

She didn't reply, subconsciously tracing the outline of one of many forming bruises on her forearm with the tip of her finger. After a slight pause her father turned to leave.

"Let's go home; we have a lot of research to do when we get there."

Riley let out a sigh of relief as she watched his retreating form become smaller and smaller through the hospital room window. She shouldn't have let her frustration show. She'd pay for it later. Wincing, she slid out of the hospital bed and headed toward the restroom to survey the damage. Rhuben followed.

Years of experience and similar situations helped them keep their faces calm, but even they had to stifle a gasp at what gazed back at them through the mirror. Their faces were a mass of bruises, dark purple and blue blotches covering most of it. In Rhuben's left eyebrow was a small cut with a small trail of blood still trickling out of it. The twins turned away from their images, deciding not to survey the rest of their bodies for damages.

If they didn't think about it, it wasn't entirely real.

If they didn't think about it, they could push the pain, even the memories, to the back of their minds and pretend to be normal girls with a normal life.

Closing her eyes, Rhuben struggled to keep her anger and humiliation in check before the doctors would come to release them. She knew she wouldn't get much rest once at home. But no matter how hard she tried, her body wouldn't relax.

The day's events played over and over in her mind causing her body to tense…

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><p><strong>AN: **Sorry for another short chapter, I'm really tired and this was all that I could come up with. Plus, it's a good transitioning chapter for the next one as well as a flashback for the Jacksons that you've never seen before. So, I hope that makes up for it. Sorry guys, the next one will be longer to make up for the last two short ones.

Thanks to** MysticMelody101, shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, and 2lazy2signin, **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	11. When You Start To Become Suspicious

**.:Chapter Eleven – When You Start To Become Suspicious:.**

_"From depicting the past, so goes the suspicion, it is a short step to glorifying the past." ~Lion Feuchtwanger_

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><p>"Alright guys, let's re-work All Downhill From Here," Ronan spoke into the intercom, his voice broadcasting into the recording booth. He and Robert were sitting in a control room while the DarkElements were standing in t a sound booth, headphones over their ears, and two microphones in front of them.<p>

"What key do you want it to be in?" Sydney replied.

"It doesn't matter," Ronan replied with an easy-going smile as he leaned back in his chair. "I just want you guys to have fun with it. I know that you're going to do a good job. It's going to be great, since compared to the first time you recorded it your voices have matured" He frowned as Robert pushed his hand away from the intercom button and leaned close to the microphone.

"And try not to screw it up," he added. "We don't have all day to be here and I have other things to do." He clapped his hands together loudly, causing Ronan to jerk to the side, clasping his hands over his ears. "So let's get this over with as quickly as possible."

Inside the booth Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah all exchanged glances but didn't say anything. They had learned quickly that back-talk was going to cause nothing but trouble and while they were working, they didn't need trouble. Patrick lowered his head, making sure his dark fringe was covering his face, and rolled his eyes.

"Alright," Riley mumbled under her breath as she moved towards the microphone. She turned her head away from the mic and placed her hand over it so her voice wouldn't be picked up. "He's really whacka today," she commented. "More so than usual." Her brothers and sister laughed a little, falling silent as the opening chords of the song blasted through the sound booth.

Riley waited for her cue before she started to sing.

"You're hiding something cuz it's burning through your eyes." Riley sang, leaning closer to the microphone and closed her eyes. No one knew why, but whenever she was recording, she closed her eyes, as if she was afraid to see the anyone watching her. In contrast, while she was on stage, she hammed it up as much as possible, to put on a good show. "I try to get it out but all I hear from you are lies." She took a breath, quickly glancing at her father and music producer, who seemed happy, before continuing singing. "And I can tell you're going through the motions I figured you were acting out your part. Once again we're playing off emotion. Which one of us will burn until the end?"

Riley smiled over at her brothers and sister as they all leaned forward to sing the chorus of the song. "Catalyst, you insist to pull me down. You contradict the fact that you still want me around. And it's all downhill from here. And it's all downhill from here"

Rhuben cleared her throat and instinctively pushed her headphones harder onto her ears. "Your good intentions slowly turned to bitterness" she sang into the microphone, staring hard at her father's reaction. He had an apathetic look on his face, arms crossed, and staring at them intently.

"Turn to bitterness" Noah repeated.

"Reoccurring episodes with each and every kiss" Rhuben sang and backed away from the microphone.

"Let's go!" Patrick screamed loudly.

"And I can tell you're going through the motions. I figured you were acting out your part. Once again we're playing off emotion. Which one of us will burn until the end?" Rhuben sang again and made room for her brothers.

"Catalyst, you insist to pull me down." Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney all smiled at each other as they really got into the song, putting emotion into their singing. "You contradict the fact that you still want me around. And it's all downhill from here. And it's all downhill from here"

"And I can't believe you pulled it off again." Noah and Sydney sang as Riley, Rhuben, and Patrick jokingly head banged to the beat of the song. "Or notice till it all sets in. You'll deny it till you're at your bitter end"

"And I can tell you're going through the motions." Sydney took the next part of the song, doing a small solo. "I figured you were acting out your part. Once again we're playing off emotion. Which one of us will burn until the end?"

Ronan couldn't help but smile to himself. He was getting goose bumps. It was obvious that the Jacksons loved to perform with each other and that when they sing they have the time of their lives. Over the years, he had noticed that whenever they were with their father they were kind of subdued and not as lively, but when it came to working on music, they were so energetic.

"Catalyst, you insist to pull me down. You contradict the fact that you still want me around. And it's all downhill from here. And it's all downhill from here." Noah sang as Patrick moved next to him at the microphone for his 'screamo' solo.

"And you keep pulling me down" Patrick screamed.

"Pulling me down, pulling me down" Riley and Rhuben sang in unison, smiling at each other.

"You contradict the fact that you still want me around" Patrick, Noah, and Sydney harmonized.

"And it's all downhill from here. And it's all downhill from here" They sang and finished the song with bright smiles and congratulating pats on the back as they took of their headphones and dropped them around their neck.

"So, what'd you think?" Patrick asked, gasping for air. He winced a little as he swallowed. "Ow, I think I hurt my throat."

"We'll get you a throat lozenge later," Robert replied flatly. "Riley, you were a little flat at the beginning, Noah, your voice cracked in the middle, and Sydney, you need to sing more from your diaphragm."

"I thought I did a good job," Sydney muttered, sounding like he was going to cry.

"You did, don't worry," Ronan replied and then turned off the intercom, turning to Robert with a stern expression on his face. "Hey, Rob, take it easy. The kids are doing a good job and they've been working hard all morning. Especially since you dragged them out of bed early this morning, and made them come straight here." Robert opened his mouth, but Ronan rushed to continue.

He had never confronted Robert about this, over the years he had sat back and watched as Robert practically drove his kids to the ground. It didn't help much that it was obvious that Robert's own kids would rather spend time with Ronan than they did with their own foster parent. He was always worried about it, that something was going on at home, but he could never strike up the nerve to ask him about it. Robert Jackson is a very intimidating man, and although Ronan was older than Robert, he still felt like a little kid next to him.

He had seen Robert get angry once, and he didn't want to see it every again.

But this was important and it needed to be addressed.

"Plus, they have school work to do, and since you're homeschooling them, they're getting pressured for their grades too. I think that you should give them a small break," Ronan shrugged. "At least for a couple of days or so. Let them be kids. Let them make friends."

Ronan fell silent, waiting for Robert's reply. He could see why his kids were intimidated of him, Robert stood at a good 6'2, towering over his children. And if that wasn't bad enough, he had large arm muscles, and cold grey eyes that looked like you were about to be in trouble when they looked at you. It was amazing that Gustavo got away with anything that he said about Robert, if it were anyone else, they would probably be dead.

Robert took a deep breath, as if he was trying to control his temper, before speaking.

"Ronan, you don't have kids, so you wouldn't understand," Robert snapped as he turned his steel grey eyes on the younger looking man. "But when you're your children's manager and they have competition in breaking into the American market you need them to be the best. And they're not going to _be_ the best if they're constantly taking breaks and making friends." He moved forward and slapped the intercom button once more. "Again, from the top!"

Ronan shook his head.

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><p><strong>AN: **Woop, sorry, I thought about it and realized I needed one more chapter about my characters and then it'll go back to the boys. Did you guys recognize this from my old story? Not much of it is changed, in fact, I think only a few lines are. But other than that I hope that you guys liked it anyway.

Thanks to** shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, and 2lazy2signin, **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	12. How to get to know your rival PART 1

**.:Chapter Twelve – How to get to know your rival PART 1:.**

"_Getting__ to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are…" ~Penelope Lively_

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><p>Kendall tore his eyes away from the TV as his phone buzzed on the white table in front of him. He looked back at the TV as Logan, Carlos, and James made groans of disappointment at a missed pass on a basketball game they were watching on ESPN. Kendall let out a groan himself, having missed something important, and leaned down to pick up the ringing phone.<p>

"Hello?" He muttered, moving his eyes back to the TV.

"_Dog, I called your apartment but no one answered!"_

Kendall squeezed his eyes shut and quickly pulled his phone away from his ear. A million thoughts ran though his head, some of them being how could Gustavo constantly talk and yell so loud and not lose his voice. Another being his constant wondering how Kelly could put up with someone like him, but she must have been used to it. The last thing that ran through his head was How the _hell_ did Gustavo get his number? He made sure that his music producer wouldn't have it, so he wouldn't be yelled at when he was trying to get some peace and quiet at home.

"We're watching a basketball game," Kendall said, his attention quickly shifting back to the TV once more. James, Logan, and Carlos seemed to have heard Gustavo's voice over the phone, as they had turned and had all of their attention on the blonde boy. "What is it?"

"Yeah, as much as you'd probably hate doing this, you need to spend the day with the DarkElements." Gustavo said forcefully.

Kendall blinked once. "Excuse me?" He rubbed his forehead. "Do you not remember what happened the _last_ time we tried talking to them?"

"So a couple hundred dollars of food got tossed around."

"That's not the point," Kendall said as calmly as possible, his annoyance at being told what to do already starting to irritate him. "They're probably some of the hardest people to get to know, they hardly talked to us, and when they did it was, like; they didn't want to say anything at all. And they were kind of rude."

"What's your point?"

"My point is that if they already know us, which they _clearly_ do from when we first met them, why do we have to keep trying to get to know them? I mean, they're our rivals, right? Why do we have to do it?" He leaned back as Carlos leaned towards him, trying to hear what Gustavo was saying to Kendall.

It wasn't normally like Kendall to not want to get to know someone, but he did have a point. Dinner with them was awkward, and the rules that they had were awkward as well. The one that Robert made sure that the boys understood was that there were supposed to be _no_ (absolutely no) romantic entanglements between the two bands. Gustavo quickly agreed to it, saying that he didn't want to give the boys any kind of distractions when they were working on their music. The other rules that they had were that in no circumstances were the boys allowed to go over to Blazing Phoenix Records without permission from Robert beforehand, if DE made a suggestion, it was probably good that they took it, if there were any public appearances they had to go together…Rules that seemed to be more for BTR's benefit than anyone else.

"Because I said so! And its better that you do it instead of me having to be in a room with that turd, Rob, trying to think of ways that I could murder him and get away with it!" Kendall chuckled a little at the mental image. "Just get it done; Kelly says that it would be a good idea to break the ice between your bands and all the tension or whatever."

"Should have known Kelly had something to do with it."

"Whatever, get it done, report back, we'll finish working on the album."

Gustavo hung up without saying goodbye. His upper lip curling lightly, Kendall cleared his phone and relayed the message to his friends. James, Logan, and Carlos made faces, obviously not happy with what they had to do either. It was harder for Logan though, two of them were the best friends that he ever had back when he was in Texas, but with all of the time they had been gone and when they hadn't talked….it was weird. Part of him was excited, but a bigger part of him was anxious. Not sure how to talk to them anymore.

"Well," James shrugged as a smile slowly stretched across his face. "If we have to spend the day with them, and they're getting, like, really big here, we can get some attention ourselves."

"Good to know that you're willing to basically use them for your own gain." Carlos said as he rolled his eyes.

"Why do you think I followed Kendall out here?" James replied with an innocent smile as Kendall whipped his head around and glared at him. "Let's just play some dome hockey or something while we figure out what we're going to do." He got up and walked over to the game.

"What can we do out here that will keep their attention if they've done it before and we haven't?" Carlos asked as he jumped up and raced to James' side, Kendall and Logan taking the opposite end of the game. "We don't really know them that well to know what they would be interested in. What do 16 year old girls, 14 year old boys, and a 9 year old boy all have in common?"

"The love of music, apparently," Kendall said his eyes on the game as he flicked his wrist, starting the game. The boys quickly forgot their assignment by Gustavo as they started their game.

That was what they liked about hockey so much. As soon as they were on the ice, they were taken over by the game. Their adrenaline pumped and rushed through their veins as they passed the puck across the ice, trying to get the goal. Their will to survive got bigger each time someone from the opposing team came after them, trying to knock them over to get the puck as well. Their will to fight peaked as they faced off for the puck at the beginning of the game, when a goal was made, and when a new period started. Even though they weren't at a hockey rink at that moment, all of their competitiveness shot through their veins.

They were so into it that they didn't even notice Mrs. Knight enter the apartment with a basket of clean clothes under her arm. "Here sweetie," she greeted her son with a large smile on her face. "I washed your clothes for you;" She walked over to Kendall and placed a large pile of clothes into his hands. "And I even used the special softener for your delicates."

"Thanks." Kendall blushed and quickly headed to his room to get rid of the evidence as his friends laughed at him. He came back out and got back to business. "So, did you guys figure out what we're going to do with the Jacksons today?"

"Who says that we have to hang out with them today?" Carlos asked.

"No one," Kendall said, crossing his arms. "But I'd rather get it done sooner rather than later." He turned to James and Logan, raising his eyebrows. "Any ideas?"

"I don't know," James thought for a moment. His hazel eyes then lit up and he had a smile that made him look like a kid in a candy shop. "You guys could help me make some more headshots."

"Ok!" Carlos put on his helmet, slapped it twice, and let out a scream before tackling James to the ground.

Katie hurried out of her room at the sound of them thudding to the floor, her eyes wide with fright. When she noticed James and Carlos rolling around as they play fought, she rolled her eyes. "Do you see what I have to deal with when you're not around?" Katie asked out loud, though she was speaking to her mother, who had curled up on the couch, watching.

"Hey Katie," Logan turned to her with a small smile. "We're hanging out with the Jacksons today; Kelly wants us to get rid of the tension between our bands. Do you want to come too?"

The excited expression on Katie's face faltered when he finished speaking. "I would, but I have an audition today." She pouted, kicking at the ground. "That's not fair."

"You have an audition?" Kendall questioned. He walked over to his sister and purposely messed up her hair, laughing as she reached her hands up and roughly pushed him away from her. "What's it for this time? And what happened with the lacrosse commercial"

"The same thing that happened when she actually played it." Mrs. Knight replied as she shook her head, sounding tired. Kendall sucked in a breath, wincing as he thought about what sort of damage she could have managed to cause. Mrs. Knight nodded in agreement.

Kendall turned back to Katie and held his hand up. "Nice," he laughed as Katie gave him a high-five. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks." Katie beamed.

"I heard that." Mrs. Knight called with a disapproving frown on her face.

"Seriously guys, what are we going to do?" Kendall asked as he turned back to his friends. He shook his head. "Never mind, let's just go so we can get this over with." He then turned to Katie, knowing that she was still disappointed about not being able to go with them, but doing her best to hide it. "Hey, I'll bring you something back." He promised.

"Don't get all mushy on me, bro; I'm going to see you later." Katie said before disappearing into her room.

"Right." Kendall turned back to his friends. "Let's go!"

"Just one thing you forgot, fearless leader," Logan said condescendingly. "How are we going to get into the city?"

Kendall merely smiled.

* * *

><p>"When I thought of sightseeing around LA, I thought that we would be in a limo," James complained.<p>

He sighed and turned his head from the window, looking at the rows of seats in front of him that were filled with people taking pictures left and right. He pouted and slapped his hands into his lap. "_Not_ in a bus filled with tourists!" His loud outburst attracted glares from the tourists and he, like usual, took advantage of the attention that he was getting. He quickly jumped up from his seat and reached a hand into his coat and pulled out a stack of headshots. "Name's James Diamond," he stated up the aisle of the bus, handing out headshots left and right accompanied with a charming smile. "Upcoming Popstar. Soon you're going to see my name in lights."

"Sit down and stop embarrassing us!" Logan hissed, holding his hands over his face. _I've __really__ got to get new friends. _

"Does he have a stash of those or something?" Kendall asked from Logan's side. "And where does he get the money for it? Last I checked headshots cost hundreds of dollars to get made." Logan merely shook his head in reply, his hands still over his face, cheeks turning red from the attention.

"Can't you at least _pretend_ to be normal until our stop?" Carlos asked as James sat back down.

"Coming from the guy that acts like his hockey is a living _thing_." Logan quipped.

"Hey, I'm just trying to get our name out there," James defended himself, shifting in his seat to get more comfortable. "And the only way to do that is by putting out pictures of me. Especially for our female fans." He leaned over and winked towards a couple of nineteen year old girls that were a few rows in front of them. They exchanged looks and shook their heads. "Because I _am_ 'The Face' and that draws in a lot of girls."

"Yeah right." Kendall, Logan, and Carlos harmonized.

The bus crept to a stop and they quickly climbed off. As the bus pulled away, it sent out a plume of exhaust fumes, causing the boys to choke and cough, waving their hands in front of their faces. "Somehow I thought that the air in LA would be much…cleaner." Carlos muttered as he coughed a little bit more.

"Look at the sky," Logan replied dryly. "This is probably the smoggiest place in the US. Speaking of which, did you know-"

"I probably didn't," James interrupted. "But that doesn't mean that I want to know."

"Ha." Logan rolled his eyes before turning to Kendall. "You called them and told them to meet us here, right?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but here we are."

Big Time Rush turned around, trying not to let anxiety flash over their faces. They weren't surprised to see the five of them in sunglasses and flip-flops, used to the heat. But they were surprised to see that they were all wearing a lot of black, and a little bit of their colors, despite the heat of that day.

"Hi," Sydney greeted cheerfully as he took a sip of the smoothie that was in his hands. "So Gustavo actually gave you the day off so you could hang out with us?" His smile widened when the boys nodded, but he fell silent, going back to loudly sipping from the straw that was sitting in his cup.

Rhuben sighed, noticing the tension mounting pretty quickly. "We were just headed over to Dodgers Stadium," She raised and lowered one shoulder. "Riley's a huge baseball fan, almost as huge of a fan that you are for hockey." Her eyebrows rose. "If that's even possible." She added.

"So, we're supposed to get to know each other," Riley crossed her arms over her chest, getting right to the point. "But we already know everything that we need to know about you, so why don't we just go and do our own thing and you tell Gustavo that you did what we were supposed to and just call it a day, yeah?"

"Sorry, but the point of trying to get to know each other is by actually getting to know each other." Kendall frowned. "You know about s, but we hardly know about you-"

"That's the point." Riley interrupted.

Noah elbowed her in the side and she turned her head to look at him. Noah took off his sunglasses and looked over at the boys before giving Riley a small smile. She sighed, her shoulders slumping, and took off her own sunglasses turning back to the boys.

"Whatever, we'll do this whole bonding thing," her eyes narrowed as she looked over at the four boys. "You were planning on going sightseeing, right?" They nodded. "You weren't planning on walking the whole way, were you?"

"How else do you plan on us sightseeing?" Carlos asked, completely confused.

"There's only one way to go through LA and sight see," Patrick said with a knowing smile. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and made a quick call before snapping it shut again. "And that's in style." He turned around and point up the street to where a limo was slowly weaving through traffic towards them.

"Whoa, how'd you hook this up?"Carlos's mouth dropped open in excitement.

"It's Ronan's, he let us borrow if for the day," Noah said.

The four boys leaned forward, trying to hear what he said. They all nodded when Patrick quickly repeated Noah's statement, slight expression of jealousy flashing over their faces. They knew that Gustavo would _never _let them borrow his limo, not without a SWAT team that would threaten them if they touched anything. It was clearly obvious to them that while Gustavo treated them harshly, Ronan treated his band well.

An expression of distaste filled Rhuben's face. "Kind of embarrassing isn't it," she said with a slight sigh. "I mean, it's like you're _trying_ to get people's attention."

"Isn't that the point of being famous?" James asked. Rhuben looked at him but didn't say anything.

Logan quickly changed the subject, smiling brightly at Riley and Rhuben. "Isn't this great though?" He asked. "We get to hang out again, like we used to. It'll be fun, especially since we haven't talked since we moved. It's been so long."

"Yeah, well," Riley lightly kicked at the ground. "Moving and starting to work on our music kept us so busy." She turned to him, looking at him hard. "It's not like you didn't forget about us, anyway." She added with a bite to her tone.

"I guess…"

"So, what are we going to do first?" Kendall jumped in, trying his best to do what he was supposed to do. They were supposed to be hanging and getting to know each other, and while he wasn't very happy with the extensive research that was done on him, he was willing to push aside the Jacksons' slight cold tendencies to get to know the people he was going to be working with for a while.

"I can tell you one thing," Sydney wiped his mouth with the back of his arm before tilting his head up to look at Kendall. "We're going to the mall first. We need to go shopping."

"For what?" Carlos questioned.

"For you," Riley replied with a condescending snort. "I don't know if you've realized it or not," She waved a hand. "But you guys aren't in Minnesota anymore;" with her Australian accent, the name Minnesota came out sounding more like 'Mini-Soda'. She tilted her head to the side. "And those long sleeves you're wearing are gonna make you fry."

"To the mall it is, then." James agreed with a nod.

"I CALL THE WINDOW SEAT!" Carlos shouted before clambering into the limo. Riley rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded like 'bloody bludgers' under her breath before getting in after him with Rhuben, Logan, Noah, James, and Sydney followed him.

Kendall moved to get in, but jumped back as someone on a bike rushed by him, clipping him with the handlebar on his arm. "Watch it, asshole!" The guy on the bike snapped at Kendall as he continued down the street. Kendall looked around as the cars around them started to honk their horns loudly, wanting the limo to move.

"Wow," he breathed, looking around. "It sure is…noisy here."

"Welcome to LA." Patrick replied deadpan.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Back to BTR, and another chapter that was in the old story, but there's a lot of differences in it as well. The premise of the chapter I needed to be the same, but the conversations and what they do are slightly different.

Thanks to** shotinthedark, Rage-Against-Time, BigTimeFan-'10, BigTimeRush-DarkElements-Fan, youspinmelikearecord, DarkElements-Jackson-Fan, LogieLuvr914, blue ice, Lella-Kiley-Luvr, Ash, and 2lazy2signin, **for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	13. How to get to know your rival PART 2

**.:Chapter Thirteen – How to get to know your rival PART 2:.**

"_Getting__ to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are…" ~Penelope Lively_

* * *

><p>"Alright, so where are we going first?" James asked as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "The Hard Rock café? The Roxy? Disney Hall? Little Tokyo? Universal Studios? Beverly Hills? Santa Monica? Venice? Disney-"<p>

"Are you _done_?" Rhuben interrupted in monotone, pushing her sunglasses up her nose.

"Relax," Patrick added as he stretched out his feet. "We'll find something that all of you guys will enjoy." He rolled his eyes behind his tinted sunglasses and then thought for a moment. "You'll see where we're going when we get there."

James' smile faded a little as he exchanged glances with Carlos. When they were on the set for their music video, they were a bit more…welcoming, but now, like Kendall had said before, they were completely closed off once more. Riley and Noah hadn't said anything ever since they had gotten in the limo, and Sydney was just watching them; his big blue eyes moving back and forth over each of their faces in turn.

"What do you do for fun?" Sydney suddenly asked as he kicked his legs back and forth. His sudden question caused all eyes to turn to him. He leaned forward, resting his chin in his hands as he waited for an answer. "Like, when you're not at the studio with Gustavo and Kelly?"

"Oh," Logan looked surprised as he sat up straight. "Well," he smiled over at his friends before turning back to the younger boy. "Well, we like to play hockey, that's what we did before we came out here."

"I know that," Sydney shook his head. "That's not that hard to figure out," he added. "What with our research and everything. We know everything about your hockey 'fixation'," he used air-quotes around the words. "But what do you do for fun other than that?"

"I like to read and do science experiments," Logan commented as he rubbed the side of his neck.

"Whoa, way to be a wild man." Patrick said out of the side of his mouth.

"And we like to swim in the PalmWoods Pool, make Bitters' life even more miserable than it already is, annoy Gustavo, play video games, and sleep when we have to." Kendall listed off with a bright smile. He reached out his hands and James and Carlos each gave him a high-five.

At his list, Riley slowly turned her head from looking out the window and turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "And nowhere in your _packed_ schedule you thought of, I don't know, practicing? Or running some harmonies?" She paused, giving them a few seconds to say something, when she didn't get a response; she gave a bit of a panicked look. "Anything?"

"Not really." Carlos said as he shook his head, his helmet straps hitting him lightly in the face as he wrinkled his nose.

Riley let out a sigh through her nose and turned to her sister. The two of them slowly shook their heads before Rhuben smirked and Riley nodded. She then widened her eyes and then Rhuben narrowed hers, turning her head to the side.

Riley smiled.

"What was that?" James asked in a loud whisper, leaning over Logan. "They were making weird faces."

Logan pushed him away, making a face when he had noticed how close his taller friend's face was to his. "They were silently talking to each other," He explained back in a quiet whisper. "Twins are known to have this sort of telepathic connection so they can 'read each other's minds'. They can have silent conversations if the bond is great enough."

"I wonder if they're talking about us, then," Kendall ran a hand over his face. "I'm telling you, this is going to be a big disaster. From what Katie says, they're supposed to be nice people and at this point I wish that we made some sort of agreement that we _said_ we just hung out with them for the day and just went and played some hockey."

"Excuse me," Noah suddenly leaned forward and stuck his arm out between the partition that separated the front and back of the limo and tapped the driver on the shoulder. "Drake, this is good, you can drop us off here, and we'll call you again when we're ready to be picked up."

"No problem, Noah," Drake replied as he pulled over to the curb and parked the car. "Have a good day."

"Thanks." Noah smiled back and scooted to the end of the seat, helping Sydney open the door as they all piled out of the limo.

"What are we doing first?" Sydney asked, his eyes lighting up behind his sunglasses as he bounced up and down on his toes. He quickly looked around. "We're at The Grove," he explained to Big Time Rush. "Which is _the_ biggest shopping plaza in LA. We come down here every weekend with our friends," he shrugged. "When we have free time at least. And-"

"Syd," Riley interrupted somewhat sharply. "They don't need our life story."

"But that's what the day is supposed to be about, right?" Kendall cut in, noticing that Sydney adopted a hurt look although he shrugged carelessly a second alter. "We're supposed to be hanging out so we can get to know each other. I mean, you already know all about us due to our research, we'd like to know about you."

"And we'd like it if you didn't." Rhuben spoke up.

"But we don't really have a choice," Kendall said back.

"Listen," Riley's eyes flashed as she took a step forward. "We know that you didn't want to come out here with us today, and frankly, we don't care. We didn't want to hang out with you either." She waved a hand as Kendall opened his mouth to defend himself. "The least that you could have done, in that situation, was saying it to our _faces_ rather than try to whisper. We don't like to be talked about; I in particular, hate it! So the least that you and your freakishly large eyebrows could do, for now, is keep your mouth shut, and we'll pretend you're not even here."

"Harsh, Riles." Patrick commented. "You could have told them a little bit _nicer_ than that." He waved a hand and turned to the guys. "Don't worry about that, we're not having a great day and then hearing that we had to be forced to hang out with you guys today isn't doing much to make it better."

"But we really want to make this work," James said and then placed his hands on his chest. "_I_ want to make this work. This is my dream, and you guys are part of what is going to make my dream come true. If anything, do it to help me. I've read online that you guys like to help people in the industry." He stuck out his lower lip.

Rhuben looked at him for a moment and then leaned over to Riley. "It's a good thing he's good looking," she muttered under her breath, to which Riley nodded to. "We'll _try_," she finally said to the boys. "But we're not making any promises."

"THANK YOU SO MUCH!" Carlos burst out, diving forward and grabbing onto Noah, who was the closest to him. James stood up straight, lifting Noah a few inches off of his feet and rocking him back and forth in a tight hug.

"Down!" Noah gasped as he flailed his arms and legs. "Put me down!" He let out a sigh of relief as soon as he was back on his feet, shuffling over to Patrick's side, looking at the ground.

"Sorry about that," Kendall apologized. "He gets overexcited really easily."

"Who would have guessed?" Sydney gave a sly smile.

* * *

><p>"I was perfectly fine at the top of the whole thing, looking down at everyone below me," Sydney smile to himself as he licked at his ice cream cone and then frowned. "And then Patrick pushed me down the slide and I sprained my wrist." He turned and looked up at Kendall, who was standing beside him, eating his own ice cream. "That's also how I got this scar on my elbow," he lifted his arm and showed the light, puffy skin on his elbow. He then smiled so dimples appeared in his cheeks. "And that's how Patrick bruised his shin when I kicked him."<p>

"Speaking of bruise," Logan leaned over from Sydney's other side and turned his arm over, pointing to a dark spot on his arm, by his hand. "Where'd you get this bruise?" He asked, looking at hit. "It looks kind of nasty." He added, looking at the green ring around the edge.

"I don't know," Sydney looked surprised. His eyes shifted back and forth. "I didn't even know that was there."

"You know, I got a bruise kind of like that once," Kendall said with a smile. "We were playing this pee wee hockey tournament and-"

Noah let out a soft groan and tilted his head back so he was looking at the sky. Patrick's eyes widened as he looked down at his feet. Riley and Rhuben, who's arm were crossed over their chests, were busy on their phones, trying to do everything in their power to keep from hearing another hockey story from Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James.

After a few moments of Kendall telling his story, Carlos launched into another one and Riley flipped her phone in her hand before walking away a few paces. Rhuben noticed and followed her over, after shooting Patrick and Noah a look, silently warning them not to go anywhere. Sydney, on the other hand, was listening to the boys intently.

"What are you doing?" Rhuben asked when she noticed Riley pull out her cell phone, type in a number, and put it up to her ear, an odd expression on her face.

"I'm calling Dak." Riley replied.

Rhuben tilted her head to the side, giving her an odd look. "You think that's a _good_ idea?" She righted herself. "Don't you think that the guys would be a bit star struck, kinda like they were with us on our music video shoot?"

The twin girls' upper lips curled in unison at the thought. Almost as soon as they had met Big Time Rush that day Katie had buzzed all around, flipping out at the different perks that they had (hair and make-up artists, their favorite food around, as much candy as they wanted, new shoes) and the people that they had met. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James didn't get excited to the same extent (you can't really match the enthusiasm of a teenage girl) they still had their moments that got on their nerves.

"As hilarious as that would be, no," Riley said sarcastically as she moved the mouthpiece away from her ear. "My thought is that we call Dak and Lizzie and ask them to come out too, because he's working with them under contract as well, then we find a way to dump them on Big Time Rush and we high-tail it out of here."

"Ah," Rhuben nodded and gave somewhat of a sinister smile. "I getcha. That's a good idea; I'm getting kind of bored with them anyway." She shook her head. "Did you notice that all Kendall seems to talk about is hockey?" She rolled her eyes. "I probably couldn't even ask what his favorite color is without him reverting it back to that topic."

"Mmm," Riley mused as she placed a finger to her chin. "A couple more hits on the ice and he won't even be able to remember his name, let alone the sport he obviously obsesses over."

"We could only hope." Rhuben smirked.

"Yeah," Riley lifted her head, moving her phone back to her mouth. "Hey, Dak. Yeah, remember when you said that I owed you for that time that I locked Tasha Abbott in the closet because she wouldn't stop talking? Yeah, well, I could use that favor now…" She twirled the end of her long ponytail around her finger. "Great, we're by the Cheesecake Factory, see you then." She ended the call. "He'll be here in 5 minutes; they were already out doing some shopping for their mother's birthday."

"Really." Rhuben phrased it as a question and a statement, looking interested.

The two turned back to the guys and noticed that Noah was silently waving them over, an urgent expression on his face. The two walked over to him and circled him and Patrick, so the guys couldn't hear them.

"And then I got checked into the boards and…"

"Does he _ever_ stop with the hockey stuff?" Patrick asked, making a face. "I mean, I'm not the kind of guy that knocks sports, but I think that he somehow got into a story about it after I made the off-hand comment that there was a sale at Barnes and Noble."

"And I thought Patrick was annoying." Noah added.

"I hope you didn't bring us over here just to tell us something we already knew." Riley said with a light laugh as Patrick stuck out his lower lip, adopting a look of offense. She reached out and mussed his hair before turning to Noah. "Did you get it?"

"Got it," Noah replied with a smile as he held up a hand and flipped a card back and forth in his hand. "For someone that seems like he would be very careful about his money, Logan isn't that good at making sure he's not pick-pocketed." He said and then cleared his throat.

"Dude," Patrick got Logan's attention and then he and Noah pointed to the ground. "You dropped your wallet."

"Oh," Logan patted his back pockets before turning and scooped it off of the ground. Behind him, Sydney gave a double thumbs up as he nodded like a bobble head, relaxing when Logan turned back around. "I didn't even notice, thanks."

"I don't know, I still think that we should have done it with any of the guys but Logan." Rhuben said under her breath.

"I was thinking the same thing," Riley agreed with a sigh. "But Logan is so excited to see us that I knew that he wouldn't be able to bring himself into thinking that we were the ones that took his card. Besides, it'll help us when Dad finds out that we're hanging out with these guys. You know he's not going to be happy about it."

Patrick looked at his feet as he reached up and scratched behind his ear. He didn't like having to do things like this to innocent people, he guessed he could blame it on his oldest brother, Julius, who taught him how to pick-pocket someone. Typically he only did it as a sort of magic show to innocent bystanders; he even used it to show people how to keep from being pick-pocketed. But to someone that he was going to be working with, he felt a little bit of guilt towards it.

"He's not happy about anything." Noah reminded his twin brother.

"In any case, be on the lookout when we get back home." Riley reminded them. She looked up, noticing a slight crowd had started to gather around them. Many of them were girls, who were whispering to each other quietly, and looking at the group with wide eyes, not moving out of either excitement or shock. "Great, just what we need." She murmured.

James quickly noticed and adopted a mega-watt smile before turning around to look at the girls. "Hello there, ladies. I see that you've heard of us." He motioned to himself and his friends, who had groaned and rolled their eyes, obviously used to his antics. "Big Time Rush. Upcoming pop band that's going to take the music industry by storm."

"Who?" A 12 year old girl asked, completely confused. "I've never heard of them before."

"Ha ha," Carlos laughed loudly as he pointed at James. "They don't know who you are! Faced!" His hysterical laughter slowly started to subside and then he placed a finger on his chin. "Wait…"

"Ugh," Logan slapped his hands over his face. "I think he's taken a few too many shots to the head." His voice was muffled by his hands. He slowly moved them down his face. "Or the time we dropped him is slowly starting to affect him."

"Let's hope it's the former," Kendall said back to him. "That way his mom won't sue us."

"Could I have your autograph, please?" The girl then turned to Patrick, holding out a notebook. "Please, please, please?"

"Sorry sweetheart," Patrick gave a half smile. "But we're not giving any out right now; we're showing some people around LA." He motioned to Big Time Rush before leaning forward and pointing down the sidewalk. "But you can get _his_ autograph. If you stick around, we'll sign some stuff later."

"Oh," the girl gave a little hop. "It's Dak Zevon!" The mob of girls hurried over to Dak and started to chatter loudly as they thrusted pens and notebooks into his face. He quickly signed them all before walking over to the group.

"Hey guys," he greeted with a bright smile and a wave. He turned to the girl that was at his side, smiling just as brightly as he was. "This is my little sister Lizzie." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Liz, this is Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James, AKA Big Time Rush!"

"Hi!" Lizzie stuck out her hand with gusto. Carlos took it and she shook his hand firmly, doing the same with the others. "Dak has told me about you guys, I was there for your first concert, and you guys did _such_ a great job!" She gushed.

"Your sister is kind of…" James trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.

"Perky?" Dak guessed. "Yeah, she used to be a cheerleader before she decided that dancing was her life and moved to the Dance Academy that she now goes to." He said with a laugh. "So, Riles called and said that you guys were hanging out to get to know each other. She suggested that I came by and hung out too, 'cause I'm going to be working with you on the days that they're not there and vice-versa." He explained when he saw the confused expressions on the guys' faces.

"Oh, that's cool." Logan smiled and nodded.

His smile faded quickly. It wasn't that he didn't like Dak; it was true that hardly knew the guy. He didn't get to know him that well when he had been helping them with their first concert; they hadn't really interacted since them. But he was excited that he was going to be able to spend the day with his best friends and people that he used to be best friends with. He wanted to try and establish that connection again, but now that he was here, it was just going to be that much harder.

"I…get the feeling that they didn't know that we were coming." Lizzie said, turning her gaze to the Jacksons.

"Hey," Rhuben shrugged. "It's LA. You only have a few moments to breathe before we head back into the madness."

Kendall looked over at her. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was really strange the way that she had just said that. He studied her closely, trying to see if there was any emotion that could giveaway what she was thinking, but her face was apathetic. When her eyes shifted over to him and she noticed him staring, her eyes went hard before she looked back at Dak and Lizzie once more, her eyes softening a bit.

_So much for that. _Kendall thought to himself as he shook his head.

"Seriously, thanks for all of the help that you guys are giving us." Carlos said with a relieved smile. "We really appreciate it."

"No 'thanks' needed," Riley said. "We're all under a contract." She reminded him before turning back to Dak and Lizzie. "We already got the favorites out of the way; color, food, sport," she jerked her thumb over at Kendall. "Don't get him started on hockey of you'll lose your mind."

"Hm, like you and Baseball?" Dak replied with a teasing lift to his voice.

"Like you and the Brewers, Teen Icon." Riley shot back with a half-smile and a teasing lift to her voice as well. She reached out and lightly shoved him on the arm before turning to Lizzie. "So you guys were looking for a gift for your mom, any ideas yet?"

_Well, they certainly opened up as soon as Dak and Lizzie came around. _Kendall ran his hand through his hair, before shaking his fringe out of his face. _It's obvious that they're at least friends with __them. __Why does it have to be so hard for us?_

"Not yet," Lizzie shook her head. "But I'm sure we'll find something." She turned to Kendall, a hopeful expression on her face. "Is your sister around? Katie, right?"

"Yeah, it's Katie." Kendall confirmed. "But she's at an audition right now. Sorry about that."

"It's alright," Lizzie didn't look too put off. She walked over to Patrick and Noah and looped her arms through theirs. "I'll just hang out with these two." She thought for a moment. "Let's start off with PacSun and work from there." She gave her brother a short wave before forcibly turning Patrick and Noah around and walking off with them.

Sydney gave his sisters a hopeful look and Rhuben nodded, causing him to grin. "Meet us back here later tonight so we can go home." Rhuben reminded him and he nodded before hurrying off after his brothers.

"So how are you doing today?" Dak asked as he turned to Rhuben, giving her a bright smile. "I heard that you guys were working on a new demo earlier."

"Fine, and yeah," Rhuben raised and lowered one shoulder. "Can't say much other than that, Ronan won't let us yet. But we'll let you know as soon as we're allowed to say anything." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "If you're lucky, you might see something on our shared MyFace page." She turned to Riley. "You want to check out the Apple store real fast?"

"Sure," Riley nodded once and then turned to Big Time Rush. "We'll be back in a minute," she risked a quick glance at Dak. "Talk amongst yourselves or whatever." She added with a dismissive wave of her hand before she and Rhuben walked off and disappeared into the store.

"Kind of rude." James murmured under his breath. "Hot," He flashed a quick smile. "But rude."

"Not much luck getting them to talk, right?" Dak guessed.

"Tell me about it." Carlos agreed. "We've been trying to talk to them all day and so far all we've gotten are one-word answers, grunts, and the occasional snarky remark." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And that's coming from Riley and Rhuben, Patrick is a bit more open, and Noah and Sydney don't talk a lot." He gave a small smile. "Well, until you find something that Sydney wants to talk about."

"Yeah," Dak shrugged as he turned the brim of his hat around to his neck. "They can be like that sometimes."

"How long have you known them?" Logan asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He bit his lower lip in worry as he waited for the answer.

"Uh," Dak rubbed his chin as he thought about it. "Almost three years now." He said with a nod. "I took them to New York with me when I was doing Hairspray, shortly after Ronan arranged for us to meet so I could help them slowly break their band into the US market, and then they took me back to Australia with them then they got some parts in _Les Miserables_ at the Sydney Opera House. They're not really into musical theatre, so not many people know that they've done that as well as Riley and Rhuben doing a double-role for _Annie_ when they were younger before they got into their band." He noticed the looks on the boys' faces. "They're not as bad as you think; you just have to take the time to get to know them. I've known them for a while and they're really cool. Some of the best friends I have."

"Frankly, I'm surprised they even call you friends." Kendall said.

"Yeah," Dak nodded in agreement. "They're tough to crack at first, but they're really cool. They've helped me out a lot as much as I've helped them get used to the American market. Everything they know, I've taught them, and they've been in the industry for almost 10 years now, so they're the best that you can get."

"If you say so." Logan said finally. _I wonder what happened in the time that we've been apart that's caused them to change so drastically._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Sorry that this was more of a dialogue driven chapter, I hope that you guys liked it anyway. There's one more part after this.

Cheers,

-Riles


	14. How to get to know your rival PART 3

**.:Chapter Fourteen – How to get to know your rival PART 3:.**

"_Getting__ to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are…" ~Penelope Lively_

* * *

><p>"So do you have a boyfriend?"<p>

Riley let out an exasperated sigh as she looked away from the menu that she held in her hands, for Umami Burger. She did her best to avoid James' gaze, but she knew that there was no way that she was going to get out of answering the question this time. She had never answered when he had asked, hours ago, Rhuben quickly changed the subject, getting him to forget about it, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to give up until he got the answer now. That was the only thing that the Jacksons had noted about actually going somewhere to sit down for dinner, they knew that the questions were going to start flying.

It was one thing if it had to do with their music career, and it was another if it was innocent questions to get to know them, but now the questions were getting personal and it was making them nothing short of anxious. Patrick couldn't sit still, Noah's eyes kept darting over to the exit, and Sydney was looking at his lap, if he wasn't silently watching each of the boys. Not even the fact that their friends (Dak and Lizzie) being there to help deflect some of the questions was helping.

They restaurant was pretty crowded, but the noise from the other patrons wasn't loud enough for her to pretend that she didn't hear his question. They were sitting outside of the restaurant as it was, at one of the dining tables outside, watching as cars passed by, allowing the cool air that blew off the ocean to cool them down.

Riley hesitated for a minute, crossing her legs as she nursed a root beer float. Kendall, Logan, and Carlos seemed to have fallen silent at the question as well, also wanting to know the answer, but trying not to look to eager about it.

It's probably not that they want to know if we are dating someone, it's probably that they wanted to know who it was, in case they could meet someone famous, Rhuben noted as she spun her straw in her grape soda_._ Either that or the silence is starting to get to them. They had all been sitting in silence for about twenty minutes just enjoying the view and not-so-much each other's company. Even Lizzie, who always seemed to be talking, didn't know what to say to break the silence.

James watched as Riley tried to think of a way to dodge the question. Her eyes moved to the side, as if asking Patrick, who was sitting next to her, for help. A small, curious smile crept on his face.

"Don't act like you don't hear me?" He said with a lift in his voice.

Riley pulled her long, black hair out of her face. "We're back to this?"

"Yep."

Riley's lips pursed for a moment."No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Why not?"

"Not looking for one," She said with a shrug and then in a quieter voice added, "It's not worth it, anyway." She raised her voice again. "I don't date in the music industry and it's not like it would matter anyway," her mouth moved to its default, a smirk. "We have that rule for our bands, remember?"

"Oh, you mean that 'no dating because you're working together, rule?'" Lizzie spoke up. She gave a mischievous smile as she nudged her brother on the arm. Dak gave her a warning look, but she ignored it. "He has it too, since he's been working with them for two years now."

Dak glared at her.

"Don't worry about it," Patrick broke in, waving a hand. "Basically, since you guys are just starting, Gustavo doesn't want you guys to get distracted with girl drama and everything, since a relationship can easily take your focus away from your work to unnecessary drama."

Noah nodded in agreement.

"So research tells me that you're 'The Face' of the band." Rhuben said after a moment. "Since we're on the topic of dating and everything," she brought her foot up to rest on the edge of her chair as she looked at the four boys seriously, her blue eyes boring into theirs. "You're used to girls liking you because you're all attractive in your own way," she paused, her eyes shifting back and forth. "I guess. What'll you do if you guys _aren't_ a success?"

Logan shifted in his chair uncomfortably. This wasn't the way he wanted things to go. He wanted to easily fall back into the friendship that he used to have with them. He wanted to be able to pick up right where they left off, right before he had to move. He remembered them being sad when they left, he remembered writing letters…but he got nothing in reply. It made sense in a way, they were famous now, and it must be hard to write back when they had so much fan-mail to go through. But that didn't mean that they couldn't be friends anymore.

Did it?

To them it obviously meant that, as they were acting like he was gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. They didn't act like that before, something was wrong. He knew that for sure. Something had changed them for the worse, and he was sure that it wasn't the fame that they now had.

It was something else.

"That's not going to happen." Kendall replied smoothly, noting the challenge hidden in her tone. "We're going to be a success."

"But you can't guarantee that," Dak pointed out patiently. "You can't be sure that as soon as you start releasing music it will be well-received. Pop music may be on its way back in, but it can easily be on its way out in the next month. Take Hanson for example."

"Who?" Sydney asked, his eyebrows lowering.

"You're too young to know them," Lizzie explained quickly. "They were a huge success with their song MMMBop, but as soon as the pop scene went out, they basically fell off the face of the earth." She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "But that wasn't the case, they continued to do their music, but either people didn't know or care anymore." She shrugged. "It's bound to happen to anyone."

Dak nodded in agreement. "It's hard to break into the US market," he motioned to the Jacksons. "That's why I've been helping them these past few years."

"Which we're thankful for," Riley agreed with a nod and a half smile over to her friend. "And that's why we probably have a bit of a leg up, to try and get back into it, that and that Ronan has been successful with a few other bands besides ours in the past couple of years." She looked serious. "And Gustavo hasn't had a hit in 9, it just makes it that the odds are against you." She tilted her head to the side. "Do you think that you can handle it?"

"This is just like what would happen if we were in any hockey game," Kendall said after a moment. He missed Patrick letting out an annoyed sigh, Noah rolling his eyes, and Sydney turning and giving Riley and Rhuben a look, to which they returned with a raised eyebrow. "You've been losing the whole game and seem to have done nothing right, but do you give up? No, you take the puck and try to get as many slap shots as you can to pull ahead and get that win." He reached out and smacked his hand on the table top. "And that's what we're going to do here. We don't care if our first CD fails; we'll work hard and make a second one to make it work."

With a determined grin, he reached out and grabbed onto James' shoulder. "I only came out here to make my bud's dream come true, and I'm not going to stop until that happens." James grinned back as Kendall turned back to Riley, Rhuben, and Dak. "So we can take whatever you throw at us to get us there."

Riley and Rhuben looked at each other for a few moments, silently talking to each other. Dak leaned back in his seat, trying to hide the smile that was worming its way on to his face.

_You have to give him mad props there; it looks like they're not going to give up anytime soon. That's going to be a good thing to have while they're out here. _Dak thought to himself.

He waited for Riley and Rhuben to finish before leaning towards the two girls. "I'm in if you are." He said, holding out a hand towards Big Time Rush as he did so.

Rhuben looked over at Riley, who waited a second before nodding at her and then at her brothers. The five of them leaned forward and held their hands out as well. "We're in, but not making any promises that this is going to be easy." She warned the boys.

Carlos beamed as the four boys reached out and placed their hands in the circle as well. "We wouldn't want it any other way."

"Famous last words." Noah said so quietly that only his siblings could hear.

They nodded in agreement.

"So, what's the first thing that we need to do to be sure that we have major success?" Logan asked clearing his throat as the waiter came with their food. He sat up straight, waiting as the waiter placed his plate of food down in front of him before turning his attention back to his new co-workers.

Patrick looked amused. "Well, for one thing, you could do with a better wardrobe…"

* * *

><p>"So, you should bring Katie with you next time," Lizzie said later that night as they dropped Big Time Rush off at the PalmWoods. The four of them were carrying two bags each of the new clothes that had been forced upon them while they were out.<p>

"I'm sure she'll like that," Kendall agreed. "She was actually kind of jealous that we were able to go hang out today while she went to an audition that she didn't really want to go to."

"Oh, I hope it went well for her." Lizzie gave a warm smile. "Bring her by anytime you feel like, my parents won't mind and I would like to hang out with her. It gets kind of boring, only having to hang out with my brother all the time."

"Thanks for that, Liz, thanks a lot." Dak said as he reached out and purposefully messed up her hair.

"Little sisters, right?" Kendall asked with a light laugh.

Dak gave him a look, letting him know that he knew exactly what he was talking about. He looked at his watch and then made a face at the time before turning back to the new upcoming band. "So you should turn in early today." He said. "You need to focus on getting some sleep, since their whole career is really going to start tomorrow. Bright and early." He added.

"Don't worry, we're ready for this." Kendall said with a determined nod.

"If you say so," Rhuben shrugged. "Be at Rocque Records at twelve sharp and we'll start from there." She crossed her arms over her chest as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James waved and disappeared inside the PalmWoods. "Something tells me that we're going to regret this." She said as she turned back towards the limo.

"You said the same thing about meeting me." Dak reminded her.

"And I'm _still_ regretting that." Rhuben replied.

Riley chuckled as she walked back from talking to Drake and then walked to the back of the car. She turned to her brothers, who had their heads poked out of the sunroof window. "You can take this to drop Lizzie off at home and then go back to Ronan's apartment. We'll meet you there to take you home," she jerked her thumb over at Dak and her sister. "We're going to go back to get his truck and talk about what we're going to be doing to help the guys tomorrow."

"You look like you'd rather suck a lemon." Patrick remarked.

"Good observation." Riley replied.

"Its fine," Sydney said with a smile. "We'll see you back home." He, his brothers, and Lizzie poked their heads back into the car as the limo pulled out of the parking lot and disappeared down the street.

"So what do you think?" Dak asked as he turned to the Jacksons as they started to walk out of the parking lot and down the street. "I think they have a lot of potential." He placed his hands into his jeans pockets. "We have our work cut out for us."

"I agree on the potential part." Riley said, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at him. "But right now I think they're throwing it away because they're so star-struck with LA and everything."

"But you have to see where they're coming from," Dak reminded the two of them. "They haven't been in LA for long, so they're still trying to get used to everything about them. Plus, the people at the PalmWoods are trying to do the same thing, achieve their dreams. So it's going to be around them almost 24/7."

"We'll give them the benefit of the doubt," Rhuben agreed, pursing her lips slightly. "For now."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: D**on't forget to follow us on tumblr dark-elements-10 . tumblr . com as well as our twitter DarkElements10. We love to answer your guys questions, so you can do it on our tumblr or our formspring which is DarkElements10 as well.

Next chapter will have a bit of everyone. Still don't know if I'm gonna fit all three stories in this one, or split them up.

Cheers,

-Riles


	15. How To Adapt

**.:Chapter Fifteen – How to adapt:.**

"_Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.__" ~H.G. Wells_

* * *

><p>"Did everyone finish their homework last night?" Mrs. Knight asked as she set plates filled with steaming food onto the table. "I don't want to have to be called by Miss. Collins, <em>again<em>, because you didn't have it done."

"No sweat, Mom." Kendall said with a bright smile as he pulled out his seat and heavily dropped into it, dropping his backpack to the ground with his free hand. "We got it done as soon as possible and even went to bed early so we would get a good night's sleep for school today."

"What he _really_ means is that these guys," Katie pointed over to Kendall, James, and Carlos. "Forced Logan," she pointed over at Logan, who had one elbow on the table, holding his phone above the ground with his other hand. "To do their homework for them so they could play video games. And then when they were done, they watched ESPN all night long until they passed out." She gave the four boys a smug smile as Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes.

"Just like always," She remarked, pulling her hair behind her ear before sitting down at the table with her son, daughter, and their friends. "Boys, if you're going to be in the music industry, you have to be sure that you get your priorities straight." She said, quickly shifting into her motherly tone.

"Uh-oh," Kendall, having recognized the tone, paused with his fork close to his mouth. "That sounds like the start of a lecture."

"No offense, Mama Knight, but I can't do with lectures this early in the morning." James said. "You see, lectures cause stress and when I stress, it's not good for my hair and-"

Mrs. Knight silenced James with a warning look and she cleared her throat before continuing. "Like I was saying, you have to keep your priorities straight. And while I hope you do succeed as much as you want, school is really important to you."

"Who needs school when we're going to be mega stars?" Carlos asked with a smile as he took a bite of his pancake. He continued to smile as he chewed his bite loudly.

"I think what she's saying is that it's better to have school as a back-up, possibly having a degree, rather than trying for music and failing and not having anything to fall back on." Logan explained, lifting his head and moving his phone back into his pocket. He nodded as Mrs. Knight gave him a bright smile, acknowledging that he was right. "I get what you're saying Mama Knight, that's why my backup is still being a doctor." He cleared his throat. "With _that_ being said I'll stop doing these guys' homework." He finished with a smug smile to his three best friends.

James merely shrugged in reply. "Who needs school when you can fall back on your good looks and charm?" He whipped his hand mirror out of his pocket and looked at his reflection as he started to comb his hair.

"You know, until your good looks hit a sour note by the time you turn 30." Kendall replied. "Pun intended." He added with a toothy smile as James glared at him.

"Yeah, mom, we get it. School first, everything second." Katie said shortly. "These guys will fail while Logan and I end up going on to be successful in everything we do. We get it."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Baby Sister." Kendall stuck his tongue out.

"You're welcome Big Brother." Katie stuck hers out as well.

"Enough just finished your breakfast." Mrs. Knight said with a slight shake of her head.

She brought her coffee mug to her mouth and took a sip before picking up the newspaper and glancing over it. She blocked out the sounds of the others arguing about something (how they could start into a fight this early she would never know) and thought about what the future might hold for all of them.

As soon as Kendall agreed to go to LA to make demos with Gustavo, Logan, James, and Carlos, her life was uprooted and completely changed as fast as she could blink. She had to quit her job as a waitress at a popular restaurant, rent out her house, and pack everything up just so she could help her son follow along with his pipe dream. It wasn't that she was upset that he decided to go for it; she could see that he was actually excited, although he wasn't saying it out loud. Singing was never really his "thing" it was always hockey, that much she knew from watching how enthralled Kendall got with even the most minute details of the sport. But singing was something he enjoyed as well, always singing under his breath when he was working.

But now she was wondering whether or not it was even worth it, it was like she said before; there was a chance that this could fail. And, essentially, all of that moving would be for nothing, and then they would have to go back to what their lives were like before. She was realistic in that aspect, and there was only so long that you could go being supportive when you knew enough of the music industry to know that not everyone was successful.

She just didn't want them to get their hopes up too far and have it all crashing down on them.

There was always that possibility.

Mrs. Knight quickly finished her breakfast before looking at her watch and walking over to the refrigerator. "You guys are going to be late if you don't get going now." She pumped the door open and grabbed five brown bags that were sitting on the shelf in front of her, all with their names printed on them. "Here are your lunches."

"What are you going to be doing while we're at school?" Carlos asked as he hurried over and snatched up his bag, looking through it. "In fact, what do you _ever_ do whenever we're not around?"

"Remember what it was like when I didn't have any kids to look after," Mrs. Knight replied with a pointed stare as she handed Logan and James their bags. "Actually, Gustavo wanted me to come into the office so he could talk to me about some stuff that you guys might be doing soon. Appearances and whatnot, since I'm your Momager now, I have to deal with your schedules."

"Oh." Carlos gave another one of his pleasant smiles. "That sounds like fun."

"Being around Gustavo is never fun, Carlos." Logan reminded him as he shoved his bag into his backpack.

"I might be late getting back," Mrs. Knight continued as she turned to her son and daughter. "So you," she looked at Katie. "I want you to have your homework done before I get home and then go by the pool, so I know where you are and that you're not scamming people out of your money," she then turned to Kendall. "And I want you to check on her when you get the chance."

"I don't need a babysitter," Katie quickly denied.

"I didn't say you did," Mrs. Knight conceded. "I'm just saying that with your antics, you're going to bleed this town dry of their money before you turn sixteen and I need to be sure that it happens under my watch." She lightly caressed Katie's chin, noting her look of displeasure before turning back to Kendall. "Please?"

"No problem, Mom." Kendall said with a warm smile. "Actually, it might be better if we just brought her to the studio with us." He said after a minute. "That way she won't feel like she's being left out and I can keep an eye on her easier."

Mrs. Knight let out a patient sigh as she crossed her arms over her chest. She knew what her son was up to. "You just want her there so she can annoy Gustavo without getting yelled at." She accused.

Kendall laughed and stepped forward, kissing him other on the cheek. "You know me too well." He remarked before moving back across the apartment to grab his backpack and followed his friends out the door to go to the PalmWoods School.

Mrs. Knight gave them a wave before she went back to her room to get dressed and be sure she had everything before heading over to Rocque Records. It wasn't that far of a walk and while the boys hadn't gotten any of their paychecks yet, she was going to save on gas money. She blew more than she would have liked, having to take the guys back and forth from the mall to the ice rink or to the movies as much as they wanted to go.

She couldn't help but notice the stares that she got as she walked down the street towards the record company. Some were of interest, like she was going to be offered a modeling gig at any second, others were of pure curiosity, and others were of distaste if not condescension, as if they knew that she wasn't from LA.

_I guess the stereotypes of Los Angeles are true, _she thought to herself as she continued. _People really do like to stick with their "own kind"._

She refrained from rolling her eyes as she continued on, not giving them a second glance. She only paused, slowing down a little, when she heard her name being called. Looking behind her, she didn't see anyone that she recognized, but when her name was called once more, she quickly turned to the side, following the sound, and spotted a black Mercedes pull up next to her. Mrs. Knight slowed to a stop, holding her purse to her side as the window rolled down.

Robert leaned over, flashing his pearly whites at her as his face was revealed. His window was open, letting the light breeze blow his hair. "Where are you headed?" He asked warmly. "You seem to be in a hurry."

"I was going down to Rocque Records," Mrs. Knight said. "Gustavo wants to meet with me."

"Same here," Robert looked over his shoulder, making sure he wasn't blocking traffic, before turning back to her. "Something about scheduling with my kids and their jobs too," he let out a light laugh. "He should be glad that he's not trying to schedule this while they're back in Australia or he would have a heart attack."

"Stress?" Mrs. Knight guessed.

Robert nodded. "My kids are so busy back home they hardly have a chance to breathe, out here they have more free time to do what they want, but they're still working a lot." He looked over his shoulder once more before turning back to Kacy, now looking a bit nervous. "Do you want a ride? I wouldn't want a lady, like yourself, to have to walk all the way to Rocque Records."

"It's not that far," Mrs. Knight said with a laugh.

"I know but it would still make me feel guilty if I let you walk the rest of the way there."

Mrs. Knight hesitated, looking down the street once more. Robert took her silence as an answer as he grabbed onto the door handle and pushed the door open. He seemed to not have noticed the car that had pulled up to him and started to honk the horn wildly when he noticed that Robert wasn't going to move. But Robert didn't acknowledge the driver; he just flashed Mrs. Knight another smile and waited for her.

She finally returned the smile and quickly got into the car, tucking her skirt around her as she buckled up and Robert peeled away from the curb. He waited until she bent her head to buckle her seat belt before lifting his left hand and sticking it out the window, flipping off the driver behind him.

"Thanks for the ride," Mrs. Knight said. "The streets are so crowded, so much more so than back in Minnesota."

"Yeah, well, you get tourists by the wayside here," Robert replied. "So you get used to the crowds pretty quickly. It's almost as crowded as it is in New York."

"Is that where you're from?"

"Yes, I was born and raised there. My parents, they wouldn't like me if I said this, made me go to college there. I wanted to have kids, but never found the right woman to have one with, and then I found my kids and adopted them, brought to Texas where I was working…and the rest is history."

Mrs. Knight couldn't help but let a smile of admiration. "It's so great that you decided to adopt all five of them, instead of wanting to split them up. It must be hard for them since their parents died when they were so young."

"Six," Robert quickly corrected her. "They have an older brother, Julius. He's 18 and is currently in his first year of college back in Australia."

"Wow, six. I can hardly deal with my two," Mrs. Knight laughed. "Let alone the other three that I agreed to take in."

"But you're giving them a better life, just like I'm doing with my kids." Robert said warmly. He shifted gears and slowed down as he turned into the Rocque Records parking lot. "You're helping them try to live out their dream, no matter how slim of a chance their success is. So that's something that should make up for all of the times you want to pull your hair out."

"It does," Mrs. Knight agreed. "Really, it does, I don't think that I've ever seen them so happy before. At least, not as happy as this." She waited until Robert pulled into a parking space and turned off the car before getting out, being careful not to close the car door on her skirt. "Thank you so much for the ride. It's a nice car."

"It's no problem at all," Robert replied as he got out and closed his door before locking the car. "I was glad to do it. The car's not anything special, my Dad and I fixed it up years ago." He frowned as he walked around to her side of the car, studying the paint. "Well, my dad did, I mostly just sat around and got yelled at for being too slow of bringing him whatever tools he needed. But it was a bonding experience, nonetheless."

He seemed to say the last part to himself and Kacy just nodded. Robert straightened up and made a gesture, allowing her to walk in front of him as the two went over to the front door of Rocque Records. Robert reached out and grabbed onto the door handle, opening the door for Mrs. Knight, allowing her to go in front of him and then the two went to Gustavo's office.

"About time you're here!" Gustavo barked as soon as the two stepped into the room.

"Hey, it's not my fault," Robert held his hands up defensively, in a cool manner. "I had to figure out where my kids were going to go to school while I was here. I had to drop them off at that PalmWoods School or whatever." He shrugged before turning to Ronan, who was sitting in one of the three chairs in front of Gustavo's desk, his legs crossed. "Speaking of, do you mind picking them up and bringing them to the studio? I have something to do and can't make it."

"It's no problem at all," Ronan replied with a wave of his hand. "I just need to move things aside to be sure that I'm there on time."

"Thanks," Robert reached out and gave Ronan a friendly slap on the shoulder.

Ronan grimaced as he rubbed his shoulder, trying not to wince at the stinging pain.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Kelly said, motioning for Robert and Mrs. Knight to sit down. "Now, we need to go over scheduling for appearances, press conferences, and radio interviews." She said, taking a sheet of paper off of the desk and handing it to Robert. "What we're thinking of is starting off with a quick series of radio interviews; there's an expo set up that the most popular radio stations in LA are coming to. The boys will do an interview with each one, but it'll be in the same room so you don't have to worry about travel." She started to scroll through her PalmPilot, which had a copy of the schedule on there. "And then there's the press, _PopTiger, BopMe_, and _TeenThings _will all be doing interviews in person for their YouTube, magazines, and their websites. But newspapers will be doing phone interviews with them, so they're either going to need the number at the apartment or set up a separate phone line for it. And finally, an appearance at Planet Hollywood where their fans can meet them, followed by a small performance."

"And this has to do with my kids, because?" Robert asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I figured you would be smart enough to figure it out," Gustavo chimed in. "But apparently I was wrong." He gave a smirk as Robert glared at him. "Per their contract, they need to go along with Big Time Rush when it comes to the interviews and appearances for two reasons." He held up a finger. "One for support as the boys isn't nearly good enough to do this without getting nervous, two, because they made need to work on everything, hell, they'll _need_ to work on everything on their time off in between these things. And three; because we're announcing their working together, while they're also being rivals."

"And because of that, we've scheduled a photo shoot for next week," Kelly chimed in again. "For Big Time Rush and the DarkElements to go along with the announcement. They're going to take some pictures together and some apart, so they could show that while they're rivals, they're going to be helping each other."

"Why can't that kid…" Robert trailed off for a second as he snapped his finger before turning to Ronan. "You know that guy that's always chasing after my daughter?"

Ronan smiled. "Dak Zevon." He supplied.

"Yeah," Robert said dismissively. "Why can't Dak just do this? Planet Hollywood is in New York and Dak goes to New York like all the time."

"Because Dak is now starting to focus on his musical theatre works with Broadway and everything and he's not that big a part of Rocque Records anymore," Kelly explained patiently. "And as sad as it is to say, he's not as popular as he used to be. So it's better to go with who is." She shrugged.

"What are you ideas for when this would be done?" Mrs. Knight asked. "Because they can't spend that much time away from school and their friends. Don't forget that they just got here and they're still trying to adapt to their new lives."

"Well, they're going to have to adapt _quicker_!" Gustavo snapped. He begrudgingly looked at Robert. "That's what his kids had to do and they turned out fine." He let out a breath. "If they want to be big, they're going to have to get used to a lot of changes. Soon, you're not going to be able to go out the apartment building without being recognized."

"I don't know if I want that," Mrs. Knight said as she took the sheet of paper from Robert and started to look it over.

"It won't get there that fast," Ronan reassured her. "By that time you will have you own house in a gated community so you don't have to worry about it." He uncrossed and re-crossed his legs. "If this was the basis of the meeting, then why am I here?"

"What Gustavo needs _you _to do is try and get your kids to take Big Time Rush under their wing." Kelly said, after hesitating a moment. "We couldn't help but notice that they were a bit…_cold_ with them when they first met."

"So what?" Robert snapped. "They're always like that with new people. You can't expect them to automatically like everyone they meet."

"We just want this to work out so it's a success for everyone." Kelly re-iterated, quickly glancing over at Gustavo to be sure that he didn't go out of control. His face had turned red and he looked like he was clenching his jaw, trying not to scream at them. She turned to Mrs. Knight. "And the Photoshoot will take place next week, while everything else won't be for another month, just so we're sure that the guys are at least ready for a quick performance then."

Mrs. Knight thought about it for a moment. This meant that she was going to have to make sure that Katie didn't feel left out or overwhelmed by all of the new things that were going on with her brother. She was also going to have to be sure that they could make up all of the school work that they were potentially going to miss, as well as be sure to keep them on a new, tight schedule so nothing was put in the back burner.

_I guess that's what being a Momager is all about. _Mrs. Knight snorted at the irony.

"Is something wrong?" Gustavo asked, hearing her snort.

"No, just thinking," Mrs. Knight replied after a second more of looking at the paper. "Do I have to sign something or is this a verbal agreement?"

"You'll be working closely with us when it comes to the actual scheduling, as we don't have it fleshed out yet, just a couple of ideas." Kelly said quickly. "Everyone here will be really involved with this."

"Alright," Mrs. Knight smiled and nodded.

"Well, if that's all that we were needed for, then…" Robert trailed off as he got to his feet, stretching his arms over his head.

"In a rush as always," Ronan got to his feet, moving his tie to the side as he tightened it a little. "Sometimes I wondered how you were able to get so much done during the day but now I know. You rush through meetings." He joked.

He was surprised when Robert shot him a quick glare, noting the shiver than ran down his spine. Although he was older than Robert by a couple of years, the younger man was always so intimidating to him. It was probably how he got a lot of things done, just by looking at someone hard. They would get scared and immediately do as they were told.

But it seemed to work.

"Actually, we need to talk about what we have planned for Big Time Rush on a grand scale," Kelly brought up another item on her PalmPilot.

"Then let's have a dinner meeting," Robert interrupted. "I have too much stuff to do right now. Besides, I can take us to the finest restaurant in the city where we would have very little chance of being disturbed." He smiled over at Mrs. Knight and held his arm out, much like he had done when they had arrived. "I'll walk you to the door." He offered.

"Oh, well, thank you." Mrs. Knight grabbed her purse off of the floor and turned to go. She couldn't miss the exasperated expressions on Ronan's, Gustavo's, and Kelly's, faces as she turned, but didn't get a chance to ask about them, as Robert quickly ushered her out of the room.

"If you're not doing anything now, I'd love to take you out for some coffee so we can talk some more," Robert said smoothly as he pushed up the sleeves of his leather jacket. "I'd really like to get to know you and how you perceive the music industry so far."

"I'd like that." Mrs. Knight agreed.

* * *

><p>"Dad," Patrick lightly knocked on the door to Robert's room, before opening it. "Dad?"<p>

"What did I tell you about waiting until I say you can enter before opening the door?" Robert snapped as he turned from his closet, roughly shrugging into a jacket. Patrick flinched and lowered his gaze to the floor. "What do you want, anyway?" He closed his closet door and turned to a full length mirror, pulling at the collar.

"Well, it's getting close to school starting," Patrick said as he looked at his watch. He shuffled his feet lightly before taking a deep breath. "And we're running later than usual. I was just…making sure that you were awake. That you were ok."

"That I was ok?" Robert repeated, turning to look at him.

"Um," Patrick pushed his glasses up his nose, moving his gaze to his feet. "That you weren't-"

"Hung over?" Robert guessed, to which Patrick nodded to. "The only time I get hung over is when I drink enough to forget about having you guys around. But I have a meeting with Gustavo today and I'm sure he wouldn't like me puking all over his office." He let out a barking laugh. "No matter how funny that would have been."

Patrick let out a sigh as he rubbed his forehead. He didn't know what to say to that. He didn't know what to say that _wouldn't_ risk him getting mad and taking it out on them. He rubbed his lower back; he knew that there was a bruise there from last night when he had been slammed into the ground. The corner of his back had caught the coffee table as he fell; it was a miracle that his skin hadn't been puncture. The swelling had gone down fast as Rhuben had taped a bag of ice to him. But it still hurt just the same, he could hardly breathe without it hurting and his siblings were just as bad.

"I'll be down in a minute," Robert said with a sigh. "Let me at least think of what to do."

"Alright." Patrick quietly closed the door before hurrying back down the stairs to the living room of the spacious house. He entered the living room, where his siblings were waiting with their books out, and sat down on the couch.

"How'd it go?" Riley asked, leaning forward to look at him.

"He said that he wanted time to figure out what we were going to do," Patrick replied as he pushed his glasses up his nose once more. "Apparently he has some meeting to go to."

"He didn't hurt you did he?" Rhuben said with a frown. She studied his face, as if looking for a bruise.

"No, Rhu, I'm fine." Patrick said with a half smile. "You would have heard me if he did." He shook his head, finally allowing a goofy smile to slide onto his face, acting more like himself. "Either that or I would have found a way to lock him in his room. It would come back to bite me later, but it would have been worth it."

"So what do you think we're going to do about school?" Noah asked in his quiet voice.

"Why?" Rhuben turned to her other brother.

Noah shrugged. "I like school."

"Why?" Riley and Patrick repeated. Noah merely smiled.

Riley crossed her arms over her chest as she slouched down on the couch, trying not to wince as she moved her shoulder. Rhuben could sympathize. Her ribs hurt and she was sure that there was some bruising around her wrist as well. Her ankle wasn't as swollen as it was last night, but at least she could walk on it without it hurting as much.

"I wish we could go home," she murmured, pushing her purple strand of hair away from her face. "That way we would be working more and we wouldn't have to worry about what happens in our free time." She turned to Sydney, who was sitting next to her. "We would have to worry about leaving you alone, either."

"I'm fine," Sydney replied shortly. "You don't have to worry about me."

"But we do."

"I know." Riley smiled for a moment and then it faded quickly. She brought her elbow up to rest on the arm of the couch and then rested her cheek on her fist. A thoughtful expression slid on her face. Rhuben quickly noticed the change in her twins' demeanor. "What?"

"I was just thinking that-"

"Alright," Robert strode into the room. The room filled with tension and fear as soon as he appeared. They weren't sure if he was content or if he was trying to hide his rage at something they could have potentially done or not done. You were never sure when it came to Robert. "I've got meetings to go to in the next hour." He said as he looked through his wallet.

"But, what about school?" Sydney asked, tilting his head to the side.

"We could," Rhuben shrugged. "Just not go."

"And have you running around defaming my name?" Robert snorted. "I don't think so." He shoved his wallet into his pocket and thought for a minute. "Why don't you just go to that stupid PalmWoods School that Kacy was going on and on about?"

"I thought you could only go to that school if you lived in that building?" Riley said, her eyebrows furrowing together. "I mean, that's what the manager is always going on and on about."

Robert's upper lip curled and he pulled his wallet out once more. He pulled out a fifty dollar bill and slapped it into Riley's palm. Riley's eye twitched but she otherwise didn't show any pain on her face. "So bribe him with this for all I care!" He spat. "I have to go now and you guys need to get going."

"Aren't you going to drive us?" Patrick asked as he started to gather his stuff.

"Just walk."

Even Rhuben couldn't mask the surprise and irritation that all of them were feeling. "It's across the city. It's like a 40 minute walk!"

"Walk fast." Robert replied and grabbed his keys off of the table that was sitting in the middle of the room. "And I better not hear that you were late." He added with a smile before leaving the house, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Go get your stuff," Riley instructed her brothers as she picked her backpack up off of the floor. She held the dollar bill that was in her hand up to the light and studied it. "Glad he didn't ask for his change back." She remarked as she put it in her pocket.

"We can save it if we catch the bus rather than call a cab," Rhuben said as she shrugged into her backpack. She looked at her phone before putting it into her pocket. "Then we can use his money on something that would piss him off." She noted Riley's smirk as a sign of agreement and then changed the subject. "What were you thinking?" She asked changing the subject to what Riley was talking about earlier.

"How long do you think it'll take for us to find a different place to live?" Riley turned to her twin, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't think we can live here much longer if he's getting worse."

"I know," Rhuben sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. "Let's just stick it out for a little while longer so we're sure what his schedule is, night to night, and we'll make our move then."

"Got it," Riley agreed as their brothers came back into the room. "You ready to go?"

"Are we really going to walk all the way to the PalmWoods?" Sydney asked as he took Noah's hand and followed his siblings out of the house. Riley paused to lock the door behind them before they started down the driveway towards the bust stop.

"No, doofus," Patrick replied as he held onto his backpack straps. "We're going to take a bus or something."

"Oh," Sydney was silent for a moment. "Then how are we going to get to the studio?"

"I'm sure Ronan wouldn't mind driving us," Noah continued.

Sydney asked one more question. "What are we going to tell the teacher when he or she asks why we're there now, but haven't been before?"

"Simple," Rhuben stalled for a minute as she thought about it. "Dad had a meeting, we'll tell the truth on that part. And since we're homeschooled, he doesn't want us to fall behind on the days he can't be there. So we're enrolling in the PalmWoods School part time…" she rubbed her chin and then snapped. "So we can get our schooling done when he's gone."

"Good one," Noah congratulated her.

"Ok," Patrick stopped for a minute. "So what are we going to do when someone asks us a bunch of questions? I mean, Big Time Rush goes to school there, something is bound to slip out."

"Not unless you _think_ before you speak," Riley replied and mussed his hair. "Things will be fine, think of it as a test-run from when people started to figure things out…" She spoke quietly. "Do you think that'll happen while we're here? We're going to be working in close proximity with these guys and Logan's not an idiot. It _could_ happen."

No one dared to reply to her question.

They caught the bus and took it to two other bus stops before being dropped off at the PalmWoods School. They looked around as they walked inside; noting if someone looked at them strangely or is someone recognized them. So far, no one was making a big fuss, so that was promising. They went to the front desk and waited for the manager to look up at them, but he was too busy typing rapidly on his computer.

Patrick reached out and started to ring the bell that was sitting on the desk. When Bitters didn't respond after the first two dings, Patrick smiled and started to ring the bell repeatedly until Bitters shot his hand out and pushed the bell away from him.

"I heard you the first fifty times," Reginald Bitters growled. He scowled as he looked over the five kids. "What do you want?" He then moved his computer closer to him. "You're not going to _rob_ me are you?"

Rhuben's upper lip curled.

"We're here to go to school," Riley said, resting her arms on the counter. She peered at his name tag. "Reg." she purposefully cut his name. "And we think that you're the one that could help us do that."

"Sorry, but PalmWoods rules state that the only way you can go to the PalmWoods school is-"Bitters stopped, his mouth dropping open in shock as Riley waved the fifty dollar bill under his nose. He reached for it and she quickly pulled it back, just out of his reach.

"Don't question why we come in here again and this is yours." She said with a sweet smile on her face.

"Deal!" Bitters reached out and grabbed onto the fifty dollar bill. "The school is that way," he pointed aimlessly over his shoulder and held the dollar bill up to the light. The Jacksons could practically hear the 'cha-ching' sound as they watched him. "Have a PalmWoods day."

"Thanks."

As they moved away from the counter, Noah accidentally elbowed the stapler off of the desk and onto the floor by Bitters' feet. "Sorry," he said quietly. Bitters' upper lip curled and he bent down to pick it up. When he straightened it, Noah flashed him a toothy smile before he followed his siblings.

"You get it?" Rhuben asked. Noah pulled his hand out his pocket and fanned his face with the fifty dollar bill before laughing lightly and handing it over to Rhuben, who shoved it into her pocket. "Sometimes I wish Julius taught me how to do that, but I'll just leave it to the pros." She said, moving her arm around his upper back and giving him a side hug. Noah smiled and hugged her back.

"It's not that hard," Sydney remarked earnestly. "All it is, is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection."

"Thanks for the history lesson." Riley said.

"You're welcome." Dimples appeared in Sydney's cheeks as he smiled back at his eldest sister.

The five quickly found the PalmWoods School and hesitantly stepped inside. They couldn't help but notice Big Time Rush, Katie, Jo, Camille, and Stephanie as they entered. Riley muttered something under her breath when she noticed that some of the few empty seats that were in the room where by them.

"Stay here and I'll go talk to the teacher," Rhuben said before moving to the front of the room and grabbing the attention of the blonde that was writing on the board. Riley scratched the side of her neck as her eyes scanned the room once more. She looked over at Katie, who seemed to be doing her best at not looking excited, and then looked over at Patrick and Noah.

"Do you guys want to go sit by Katie?" she asked as her lips slowly curved into a teasing smile.

The twin boys glared back at her as Sydney giggled. They waited for Rhuben to come back from talking to the teacher and Logan quickly appeared at the side of their group with a large smile on his face.

"Hey guys," he greeted them. "I didn't know that you were coming today." He looked a little confused. "What…are you doing here?"

"Unfortunately," Patrick turned to him. "We're going to school." Logan turned to him and he made a face, shaking his head as Logan noticed his tone. "I don't like school."

"Why?" Logan asked with a slight laugh.

"Oh here we go," Riley rolled her eyes as Rhuben pushed her way back over to the group. "Logie-Bear is gonna lecture us on how school is good for us."

"The teacher's name is Miss. Collins," she reported to her siblings. "She's actually kind of nice, not a hard ass like the ones that we have back home." She turned to Logan and gave a short nod. "Hey Logie-Bear." She greeted.

Logan winced both times at the nickname that he was called. The two had called him that all the time when they were younger, so much so that his mother even started to call him that every now and then. He winced almost every time he heard it because he hated the nickname that much. To him, it was probably the worst thing that he could ever be called.

"Must you call me that?" He asked.

"Yes." The twin girls said in unison.

"Whatever," Logan rolled his eyes. "So what are you doing here?" He repeated the question.

"Dad is at a meeting and he thought that it would be a good idea if we came here today so we didn't miss out on our education." She said with a hint of sarcasm. "Like _that's_ the most of our worries." She added with a smirk.

"Oh, that's cool." Logan's eyes lit up. "Well, why don't you guys sit with us?" He motioned over to the empty seats towards the back of the room. "Some people are out sick and some others are on auditions or whatever, so you can sit with us." He turned back to the five with a wide smile.

Sydney smiled softly in return.

"Uh," Riley hesitated for a moment.

"Come on," Logan didn't get them a chance to respond before he started across the room once more.

Knowing that they were stuck, they followed Logan across the room and to the seats that he had pointed out. Rhuben noticed that Kendall, James, Carlos, and Katie at least looked a bit pleased that they were there. Her eyes moved over to Jo, Camille, and Stephanie and she wasn't sure about them. Stephanie studied them for a moment before giving a half smile as she moved her gaze to a video camera that was on her desk. Camille looked over at Logan before she gave a bright smile, obviously the kind of person that tried to get along with everyone. Jo, on the other hand, was the one that she couldn't place.

Once again, Rhuben was inclined to dislike Jo at first sight: she looked like the kind of too-perfect girl who would blow off someone like them. It happened already, in a way, when she had met her for the first time. Jo seemed to be acting like they were, only answering very shortly when she was asked a question.

"Hey," Katie greeted as Sydney settled in the desk beside her. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Dad had a meeting so we needed to come here to get some work done." Patrick explained with a short sigh. He looked like he would rather eat his own foot than be at school.

"How'd you manage to get in though?" Jo asked. "I mean, the PalmWoods is the home for the _future_ famous, and you're already famous." Rhuben looked over at Riley and noted that she noticed Jo's challenging tone as well.

Riley gave something short of a malicious smile in return. "You'd be surprised." She said shortly.

"I probably wouldn't." Jo replied.

"What does that mean?" Rhuben turned her steely gaze to Jo.

"Nothing," Stephanie broke in before Jo could say anything else. She shot Jo and Camille a look before leaning forward, separating the two groups. She was speaking mostly to Riley, Rhuben, Jo, Camille. Katie was already talking to Patrick and Noah, though Noah seemed to be listening more than talking. That left the guys to talk to each other as Sydney just looked around quietly. They already seemed to be hitting it off better than the girls did. _Either that or Patrick, Noah, and Sydney are really more open than their sisters are. _"Anyway, we were thinking of going to the mall later today…maybe you guys want to come with us?"

Rhuben shook her head. "We have stuff at the studio to do," she denied. "Late night and everything."

"But it'll probably be one of the few times that you could do it with no fans hounding you," Stephanie continued, not giving up that easily. "I mean, back home, you must have fans following you all the time."

"Enough so that you can tell who's a real fan and who's a suck up." Riley said as she pulled a notebook out of her backpack and set it on her desk. "It's actually _really_ easy to tell the difference between the two."

Stephanie let out a breath through her nose as she tapped her fingers on her chin. Camille looked over at Jo and noticed that she didn't look like she was going to budge. So Camille leaned forward and tapped her on the shoulder. "Give them a chance," she whispered. "We're trying."

"That's only because you want Logan to notice that you're trying to be friends with his friends." Jo replied to which Camille smiled to before looking over her shoulder at Logan. "Geez, why don't you just ask him out?"

"Because he's the guy, he has to ask _me _out," Camille replied, turning back to her best friend. "Besides, if Logan is friends with them, they can't be that bad."

"And the last time we tried to talk to them and now don't show you that you could be wrong?" Jo asked, her eyebrows rising. "It's not that I don't even like them. It's just…they act different each time we were around them. Their image is that they're 'bad boys' and 'bad girls' or whatever." She used air quotes around the words. "Last time we were around them, from what the guys told us about them at The Grove, and from now, they can act like their image. But when they loosen up even the slightest, they can be cool."

"So?" Camille asked.

Jo thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain it. "Being a fan of theirs, I know how they could potentially act, and I don't know if that's something I want to be around." She moved her hair behind her shoulders. "But if Logan says that they're ok, then I'll try."

Camille nodded.

* * *

><p>Logan dutifully wrote notes in his notebook as Miss. Collins continued to lecture them. He looked over at his friends and rolled his eyes when he saw Carlos was making a paper airplane and James seemed to be writing out ideas for his next headshots. Kendall, though, seemed to be working on taking notes as well, but he couldn't be sure about it either.<p>

Logan looked in front of him and watched as Rhuben continuously flipped back and forth in her notebook from the front to the back, writing on each one, but she spent more time writing in the back of the book. He watched her for a few minutes before leaning forward slightly.

"Dude?"

Logan turned his head to the side and noticed Kendall looking at him oddly. He sat back in his seat, waving a hand, to let him know that everything was ok and started to take notes once more. Before he knew it, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had gotten up and were quietly starting to gather their things together.

"Where are you going?" Logan whispered.

"Got to get to the studio," Rhuben replied as she put her backpack over her shoulders. She then bent down to help Sydney put his own on.

"Wait," Kendall whispered, hoping not to disturb anyone else around them. "Aren't you guys going to help _us_?"

"Later, Dak is going to help you when you get there and we'll come by later." Noah said.

"Believe it or not," Patrick gave him a funny look. "We have our own music to work on."

"Well, do you need directions to get there?" Kendall asked and flipped to a clean sheet of paper in his notebook. He stopped and looked up when Rhuben forcefully grabbed his notebook and flipped it back to his original page. "I don't know why you're acting like this when I'm just trying to be your friend." He said, not seeming to take offense about it.

Riley sucked in a deep breath in her nose before placing her hands on the top of his desk. "Listen you large-eyebrowed-freak," She said in a low voice. "The _last_ thing that I want at this point is someone who is trying to be my friend." Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. "And for whatever reason, I don't believe that that is all that you want to do." She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. "Or that you're going to give up."

"It's because I'm not." Kendall replied with a short shrug.

Riley gave him an odd look before leaving the room with her siblings.

"What was that?" James asked as he and Logan and Carlos leaned close to him.

"Nothing," Kendall replied before turning back to his notebook, trying to get back into whatever Miss. Collins was talking about. But he meant what he said. He wasn't going to give up to try and become friends with them, if they were going to be working in the same industry and be working that close together, it would be better if they were on good speaking terms or at least acted like they were glad to be around each other.

Besides, if anything, he wasn't going to let anyone talk badly about his best buds if he was around.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Sorry if the timeline/transition of this chapter was kind of weird to you guys. I hope I made it clear enough; everything happens in the same day, but some events happen at the same time, but with different points of view.

So, I finally decided that I'm going to put all three stories into this one, and I'll let you know either by the change of chapter titles (the composition), by an author's note at the end of that story arc, or by putting it at the beginning of the next arc; I haven't decided yet. Either way, this will probably be my longest running BTR story depending on how much I change/take out.

Also, the pacing seems to be going kind of slow, but it'll get faster as the story goes along. The next chapter follows the events directly after this one, and then things will speed up. It was originally going to be in this chapter, but that would have made it too long. Also, WayneWayne will appear in this story, it'll just take a bit until he gets there.

Cheers,

-Riles


	16. How To Break The Tension

**.:Chapter Sixteen – How to break the tension:.**

"_We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive." ~Martin Luther King Jr._

* * *

><p>"Are you boys ready to go?" Kelly asked as she walked up to the guys as soon as school ended. "We need to get going now or we're going to be late." She lifted her index finger. "And if you're branded as late, you're going to be blacklisted in all of Hollywood, so even the biggest music producers will be hesitant to work with you."<p>

"I thought Gustavo was the biggest music producer?" Carlos said in confusion as he shifted his backpack up his shoulders.

"Have you never heard of Timbaland?" Kelly replied, hugging her notepad and folders to her chest. "Gustavo is the biggest name right now, since he's trying to prove that he can come back from a long time of not making a hit."

"Oh," Carlos nodded and then fell silent.

He didn't like the idea that he and the guys were the ones that held Gustavo's success in their hands. He didn't like how they had so much pressure put on them because of it. He was the kind of guy that wanted to have crazy fun and to make people smile and have an exciting experience while out in L while potentially getting a girlfriend. But now that he had the possibility of screwing up Gustavo's career, he wondered if it was even worth it. He was yelled at all the time, Mrs. Knight was constantly watching him to make sure that his homework was actually getting done, and now he was being pushed even more than he had when they were playing hockey. At least hockey was fun to him.

"Don't feel bad, Carlos," Kelly noticed his brooding. "Even though he won't say it out loud, Gustavo and I, we both have a lot of faith in you guys." She looked at all four boys. "That's why we're working very hard for you guys to have all of the opportunities that you can have to make sure that things go well with your band."

"And we hope that we do nothing but make you proud, Kelly." Kendall continued. "Oh," he snapped his fingers. "I hope that you guys don't mind that I bring Katie along with us." He said and then gave her a pleading look. "Mom had to go to a meeting and then she didn't have someone to watch her and-"

"Oh yes," Kelly moved her hair behind her ear. "The meeting. We just talked about future appearances for you guys. Nothing to get excited over." She slowly started to smile when she noticed how the boys had perked up. "Don't worry; you'll hear about it soon, right now I need you guys at the studio so Dak can look over everything before the Jacksons get there so they can see what they really need to help you with."

"I'm ready!" Katie declared with a bright smile as she walked over to the guys and Kelly.

Kendall looked at her and did a double take before looking over at Logan, James, and Carlos. They had noticed it too. From the time that it had taken for class to get out, Katie had hurried to the bathroom and changed her clothes a little, and took her hair out of the pigtails that it was in. She even looked more excited than they had ever see her before, even more excited than when she got her first 100 dollar bill for her birthday from her very generous grandparents.

"What are you staring at?" She snapped, causing the boys to jump and quickly stammer a response, their words tripping over each other as they did so. "That's what I thought." She rolled her eyes as she turned away from the boys.

"You guys are heading out already?" Camille asked as she, Jo, and Stephanie walked over to the boys. Kelly's phone rang and she quickly answered it, stepping aside so the guys could talk to their friends. "Usually you guys have time to hang out before Kelly gets here." She pouted a little.

"Yeah, well, we have a lot of work to do at the studio today." Logan shrugged, giving a small, apologetic smile.

"Dak and the Jacksons are coming over so we can get some evaluations and stuff done before they officially start to work with us." James explained with a bit of bragging to his tone.

"That's so not fair," Stephanie said with a sigh. "You guys have only been here for three months and you're already starting to meet famous people. I can't even get a celebrity to stare in one of my no-budget movies." She added as she motioned to her camera. "And I've been sending out e-mails and everything."

"Well," Katie took a step forward. "If you want to get things done and don't have a manager-"

"Katie, don't solicit my friends." Kendall placed his hand over Katie's mouth and pushed her behind him as he looked at his friends apologetically. Behind his hand, Katie frowned and stuck out her tongue, licking his palm. Kendall made a face and pulled his hand away as Katie grinned evilly.

"Hey, if she can find a way for me to get my films out there, then she can do what she wants." Stephanie pulled her long wavy, dark brown hair out of her face before tucking her camera into her pocket. "Do you think that you could ask Riley and Rhuben if they want to go to the mall with us?" She asked Logan.

"Why can't you just ask them?" Logan replied, tilting his head to the side.

"We tried," Camille replied with a shrug. "And they turned us down. Jo," she pointed over to the blonde at her side. "Doesn't really want to bring them with us, but you said that they're great once you get to know them so we're trying."

"I'm sorry," Jo shrugged. "I just don't think that they're people that we want to hang out with because they seem to be exactly like they're image is." She shook her head. "I don't want to be around people who are so negative all the time."

Logan wasn't sure what to say at that point. He didn't want to sound like a broken record and continue saying that they should give his friends a chance. At that point, they weren't really his friends either, he was trying to get back onto good terms with them again, but he knew that they had a 90% chance of success with it, so why not keep trying? Besides, it was like Gustavo had told them before, you can get every lonely in Hollywood and you had to choose your friends wisely.

"But it was like when Gustavo stayed at our crib, Mom told us we had to be nice," Kendall said after a moment. "She always said to me when we were kids, if I was being bullied, that the best way to get them off of your back is to 'Kill Em' With Kindness' we could try that."

"And be laughed at?" Jo asked skeptically. "You're forgetting that they're famous halfway across the world, they could probably care less about it."

"Jo," Camille placed a hand on Jo's shoulder and squeezed it tightly. "Just try."

Jo pursed her lips as she looked at everyone around her and then sighed, knowing that she was out numbered about this. "Whatever," she said finally. "Fine, I'll try."

"Great, so," James rubbed his hands together as he thought about it for a moment. "Mama Knight said that she would be out, for a while today, so why don't you guys come to the crib later and we'll find a way to get the Jacksons there as well and then we can all hang out and have a good time?"

"Would if we could," Camille said with a disappointed sigh. "But we already have appointments to get our nails done and we can't miss that."

"You sound _so_ disappointed." Kendall said sarcastically.

"Hey!" Bitters slapped his hands on his desk. "No loitering in the lobby!" He slowly leaned forward. "I've got my eye on all of you!" She slowly pointed at all of them with his fingers in a 'V' shape before pointing towards his eyes with it.

"On that note," Kelly walked over to the group, snapping her phone closed. "We have to get going." She grinned, showing off her pearly whites. "But don't worry; I'll have them back in time for your little party or whatever."

"NO PARTIES IN THE PALMWOODS!" Bitters suddenly shouted at them.

"Don't worry Bitters, it's not a party," James said smoothly. "It's just a-"

"Social Gathering!" Carlos jumped in, causing the girls to laugh.

"Whatever," Kelly waved her hands. "Come on." She said and turned on her hells and led the boys out of the PalmWoods and down to Rocque Records. Depending on the kind of day, they would either take Gustavo's limo or a taxi to the studio, other times they walked. But it was the time for them to be able to get to know Kelly and to have time to bond with her, as when she wasn't with them, she was dealing with Gustavo's antics.

"So what are we being evaluated on today, Kelly?" Carlos asked as he moved over to Kelly's side.

"Forget that," James reached out and grabbed onto Carlos's shoulder and pulled him out of the way. "What kind of appearances are we doing?"

"What about endorsements?" Kendall jumped in. "Are we getting any shoe endorsements soon? If so I dibs Vans." He kicked out his right foot and shook it back and forth before catching up to his friends.

Kelly laughed lightly at their antics and looked over at Katie. The two of them shook their heads and rolled their eyes, both thinking the same thing. _Boys._

Kelly could honestly say that these guys were the most energetic and willing to learn than anyone else that she worked it. Angel City was ok, it was a guy-girl pop group, that was eager, but they weren't willing to do everything that Gustavo wanted. It was especially hard since two of them had gotten together and it caused a lot of problems when they broke up. But their other groups did nothing but flop, and their bad-boy experiment was humiliating. That was the last group that Kelly and Gustavo worked with. A lot of people saw it as Gustavo's last shot of being something, but it was Kelly's too. Griffin had told her that if she didn't help Gustavo get big, his record company as well, she would be fired. She was never going to tell the boys that though, they were already worried about Gustavo's job, they didn't need to worry about hers either.

"Guys, as sad as it is to say, endorsements are going to come _after_ your first CD comes out." Kelly said patiently. "You need people to know who you are first, so these appearances and things that you are going to do needs to come first before you think about money."

"I'm sure that James didn't think about anything _other_ than money and fame when he first realized he wanted to be a singer." Logan said with a laugh. "I remember when we were in 4th grade and we were asked what we wanted to be when we grow up. He said that he wanted to be rich and famous."

"And then _Logie_," he slapped Logan on the arm. "Shot my dreams down when he said that I had an almost 100% chance of failure!"

Logan shoved James back. "I was just being realistic."

"Well you can take your realism and shove it up your-"

"Hey!" Katie called, breaking the guys out of their fight. "Let the woman talk!"

"Boys!" Kelly interrupted, although she was laughing with Kendall and Carlos. "Relax; all I want you guys to do for now is just worry about getting better. I'll let you in on a little secret though," she stopped walking and motioned for the boys to gather around her. "Even though they can be prickly at first, the Jacksons are probably some of the best people that you can work with right now."

"Are they that way with you?" Carlos asked, tilting his head to the side.

"No," Kelly said. "Because they respect me. I showed them that I wasn't going to take what they were dishing out and they quickly changed after that."

"Thanks for that," James said. "That was _really, very _helpful."

Kelly laughed again and started to walk again, the boys trailing behind her. She listened as they talked about school that day and then what they hoped their CD was going to sound like. When they arrived at Rocque Records, Dak and Lizzie were waiting outside for them. Lizzie was looking at her phone and Dak was sitting on the curb, his arms resting on his knees talking to her.

Lizzie noticed them first, a large smile moving onto her face as she moved her phone to the pocket of her jean dress. She grabbed Dak's attention before hurrying over to Katie and sticking her hand out in her face. "Hi! I'm Lizzie!"

Katie blinked, completely thrown off by the blonde girl's perkiness. She slowly stuck out her hand and grabbed Lizzie's hand. "Katie."

"It's so great to finally meet you!" Lizzie shook Katie's hand harder than she expected, shaking her whole arm up and down. "I heard so much about you!" She turned to Kendall. "When he said that he had a sister, I wanted to meet you immediately."

"Really?" Katie wasn't sure if that was a good thing. She didn't have many friends that were girls, even her girl friends back home weren't really her friends. At least not anymore, as all they seemed to want was Big Time Rush stuff.

"Mhm," Lizzie smiled warmly as she waved at the boys before motioning behind her, where Dak had joined them. "And you know my brother, Dak, right?"

"Yeah," Katie smiled a little, subconsciously pushing her hair behind her ears as she nodded at him. "I remember him. Hey, Dak."

"Hey, Katie," Dak beamed at her. "Once again, thanks for saving me from the hoard of fans at Rocque Records." He shrugged, speaking to everyone. "I guess the only good thing about moving onto musical theatre is that I don't have to worry about people trying to chase me down anymore."

Logan rolled his eyes as he shook his head lightly. _I know that fame can make people conceited, but this is just ridiculous._

"Hey," Lizzie poked Katie on the arm. "Maybe then I'll save your brothers from hoards of fans. That'd be so funny!"

"I guess." Katie shrugged.

"Alright," Dak broke in. "I'll get started on what you guys are going to be evaluated on." He led the boys into Rocque Records, waving to Kelly as she went off to Gustavo's office. He stopped at a door on the left and opened it, turning on the light to reveal racks and racks of clothes.

"Wow," Logan looked around.

"It's amazing isn't it," Lizzie agreed. "If I had this many clothes, I wouldn't have to go shopping anymore."

"Trust me, Liz; nothing will keep you from shopping."

Katie's upper lip curled. So far, she wasn't sure she liked what she was seeing with this girl. She was acting like all of the other girly-girls that she knew back in Minnesota. The ones that treated Katie like an outcast because she was such a tomboy and would rather watch her brother play hockey than listen to them gab on and on about who was dating who in Hollywood and who was hot. _Though technically I'm a hypocrite since I know so much about the Jacksons._

"Man, you're quieter than Patrick says." Lizzie's statement broke Katie's thoughts.

"Huh?" Katie blinked.

"You're quieter than Patrick says," Lizzie repeated as she disappeared around a clothing rack. "He said that you seemed like the person that kind of speaks your mind, but I gotta tell ya, so far, you're kind of a drag."

"Liz!" Dak snapped. He turned back to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. "Ignore her." He then raised his arms. "This is the wardrobe room. Others call it the Fitting Department, Costume Closet, what have you." He swallowed. "Riles is going to be working with you on your styling for different events and for your performances," he picked up a notepad that was on top of a rack of clothes. "So write down your clothing style and she'll do her best to get the clothes for you."

"How does she get the clothes?" James asked as he grabbed the notepad.

"Most of it is on Gustavo's pay," Dak explained. "But if she's ever out and sees something that might be good, sometimes she uses her own money on it."

"I'm just glad that it'll be Riley that we work on our clothes with," Carlos said. "That way we don't have to worry about Rhuben insulting us and jabbing us with pins."

"What?" Lizzie poked her head out from behind a rack, wearing a hat and sunglasses. She pulled the sunglasses down her nose and looked at them in confusion.

Katie laughed. "She called Kendall a large-eyebrowed-freak today when he tried to help them by getting directions here."

Dak and Lizzie exchanged glances. "Are you sure that was Rhubes?" Dak asked, looking confused. "Cause that doesn't sound like her at all." He paused for a moment as he looked over at Logan, who had taken the notepad from James and was busy writing down his style. "What color was she wearing?"

"Red." James replied.

"That explains it," Dak smiled. "That was Riley, not Rhuben. Easiest way to tell them apart is that Riles wears red and Rhubes wears purple. They act almost completely identical, but they have different personalities. Rhuben will only insult you if you insult her first; Riley does it because she feels like it."

"Same with Patrick and Noah." Lizzie added. "On the color thing, Patrick likes yellow or gold and Noah likes white or silver. Patrick talks a lot and Noah doesn't talk much, but they're both cool. Syd is a ball of energy when he lets loose and is just like any other 9 year old boy."

"And you're friends with her?" Carlos asked.

"And you're not?" Lizzie shot back. "They're cool. Rhu was the one that got me into dancing." She added with a nod.

"She's leaving out the part that she's had her eye on both Patrick and Noah since she met them." Dak said and then leapt out of the way as Lizzie tried to hit him. "Moving on." He ushered the guys out of the room and closed the door behind them. He stopped at a set of recording booths. "Obviously you guys record and stuff here and work on your vocals. If I'm not around to help on your vocals, then Patrick and Noah would be helping you guys. They're the ones that generally work on the melodies and stuff for their songs."

"What about Sydney?" Logan asked. "If Riles does wardrobe and Rhubes does choreography?"

"He's going to be helping Gustavo with producing." Dak rubbed the back of his neck. "He may be young, but that kid is hella smart. I'm not kidding, he's actually a part of MENSA," he noticed Logan's eyes widen with surprise. "He's _that_ smart."

Dak continued the short tour through Rocque Records, pointing out everything that the guys were going to be tested on and have notes taken about, to see where they were at this point in time.

Katie watched as they went through the motions. She was really proud at what her brother was doing to be sure that his friends would achieve success. At this point, it seemed like they were going to be really big and she was going to help in any way possible that they were going to get there.

"Fun to watch, huh?" Lizzie asked as she sat down next to the brunette girl. "As a piece of warning, people are going to start talking about you now."

"Please," Katie snorted. "I'm no one, just Kendall's sister. They don't care."

"I thought the same thing," Lizzie shrugged. "Since at first no one cared who I was and next thing I know, people are putting out stories that I'm Dak's girlfriend." She laughed as Katie gave her a horrified look. "Don't worry; they all quickly took those stories back when he said that we were siblings."

"But," Katie racked her brains back to a recent magazine article that she read. "Don't Dak and Rhuben have a thing going on?"

"In Dak's mind, yeah," Lizzie said with a laugh. "He's always been open about liking her, Rhu, on the other hand, hasn't said a thing. But she's never open about that kind of thing so if something was going on, which there isn't, the mags would probably be the last to know." She changed the subject back. "But like I said, be ready for when you get into the spotlight. Soon you're going to have guys chasing after you."

"Ew." Katie wrinkled her nose.

"Exactly." Lizzie laughed. "But as long as your brother is more famous, you can just sell his stuff so people will take their minds off of you." She shrugged. "For the time being anyway."

Katie finally smiled over at Lizzie. "I like the way you think."

* * *

><p>Robert growled as he shut off the boom box. He stood with his back to his kids for a few moments, completely silent. Finally, he turned around and hit Noah, who was the closest to him, across the face. Noah didn't let out a sound as he moved a hand up to his cheek.<p>

"You have been working on this for _hours_!" he all but shouted. "And you _still_ can't get it right." He turned to Rhuben. "Aren't you supposed to be the dancer?" He got up in her face as she glared back at him. "Aren't you supposed to be the one that's supposed to know everything about dancing? Aren't you supposed to be the one that can do this?"

"We can, but-"Robert now hit Rhuben on the face.

"Did I say that you could talk back to me?" Robert demanded. He took a step back and looked at his kids, who didn't dare say anything back to him. They were trained too well to know what they should and shouldn't do in different situations when he was angry. "I was thinking about forcing you to work all night, but then you wouldn't be able to record tomorrow. And if can't record, you can't make me any money." He clapped his hands together loudly. "Let's remember what's at stake her shall we?" He looked at his watch. "You're done for the day, I don't care what you do now, just have dinner on the table by 7:30, and you can at _least_ do that, right?"

He left the room, loudly slamming the door so loudly that the glass shook on its mounts. As soon as he was sure that they were gone, Patrick quickly left the room to get some ice.

"I wish Ronan was here." Sydney said quietly as they gathered their bags together.

"Why?" Rhuben asked as she moved over to the mirror and inspected her eye. "It would just make it that Dad would beat us even harder when we're back in the comfort of our own home."

"I know," Sydney nodded as he moved over to her side and wrapped his arms around her waist in a hug. "I just wish that he was here so he wouldn't have been as hard on us today." He said, resting his chin on her stomach. "Then again, that might have been Robert's plan, since he shooed him away as soon as we got to the studio today."

"Do you think he knows?" Riley asked.

"Who?" Noah questioned as Patrick came back into the room. He took the bag of ice that Patrick was holding out with a slight nod of acknowledgement. Patrick nodded back before walking over to Rhuben and giving her the other bag.

"Ronan," Riley stretched her shoulders and winced. "Do you think he knows what's going on?" She lightly rubbed her shoulder. "It's possible, he's known us the longest out of everyone."

"If he does, then why does he not say anything?" Sydney pointed out.

"Probably because Riles might have intimidated him into not saying it." Patrick said thoughtfully. He noticed Riley's annoyed look and he held his hands up defensively. "I'm just saying that, even for you, calling Kendall a large-eyebrowed-freak was as mean as cat's piss." Patrick said with a shrug. "If you were that mean to Kendall, it's possible you were that mean to Ronan at one point."

"Well excuse me." Riley rolled her eyes. "Aren't we trying to keep them from figuring out our secret so _they_ don't get hurt as well? I'm just trying to keep them as far away from us as possible so they don't get close to finding out." She planted her hands on her hips. "Besides, he's up to something, I know it. And it's driving me insane that I don't know what it is."

"You think _everyone_ that tries to be our friend is up to something before they become our friend, and most times you're wrong." Noah said patiently. He paused for a moment as he bit his lower lip. "I mean, McFly quickly shot that theory down, so did Nic, Tristan, and-"

"We get the point, No." Patrick interrupted him, running a hand over his forehead. "If I can give my two-cents," he said quickly, holding up his fingers loosely in the peace sign. He turned to Riley. "Obviously, your idea of…forcibly pushing them away so they don't find out our secret isn't going to work, especially since we're working _very_ close to them. Closer than we've worked with anyone else." He scanned his siblings' faces. "What I think we should do, instead, is at least try to be friends with them." He shrugged. "For one thing, they're obviously trying to be ours, and we don't have many. I don't think that they're up to something and if we're friends with them, it'd actually be easier to hide our secret, since we'd be able to keep them away from Robert easier."

"I think that's the first good idea that you've had in a while," Rhuben said with a half smile, causing Patrick to beam with pride. "Also," she scratched her forehead. "I don't think that calling him a large-eyebrowed-freak would help anything, because it might be his biggest insecurity." She then smirked. "Then again, I figured it would be his nose, since it's so big."

"That's not funny, Rhu-Rhu." Sydney said, although he giggled a little.

"I'm just saying."

"Alright," Riley kicked at the ground. "For now, we can at least be civil with them, but of course, we can't put our guard down." She twisted her mouth to the side. "Not until we're completely sure that they don't have a hidden agenda."

Rhuben snorted. "Judging by their actions, I don't think they're _smart_ enough to have a hidden agenda." She brought up another point. "But what about Logan, he can find out pretty easily, you know, him wanting to be a doctor and all?"

"Simple," Noah sighed. "We're going to have to stock up in bandages, make-up, and ice." He looked at his watch before getting up off the ground. "We should get going or we're going to be late." He said. The others nodded and gathered their bags before leaving the room. Noah walked over to Riley and lightly poked her in the side.

"Yeah?" She asked him.

"It's just," Noah wrung his hands out. "I think that your ways of trying to protect all of us is very thoughtful, but you're going about it the wrong way."

"I'll keep that in mind." Riley replied.

Noah smiled. "I love you, Sis."

"I love you, too, Bro."

Riley and Noah caught up with their siblings and allowed Rhuben to lock the dance studio doors before they started the walk across town to Rocque Records. It wasn't that far of a walk from the studio, probably only twenty minutes. Not as far as their house was from Rocque Records, or their own record company, Blazing Phoenix. Their house was a little outside of the city and the two record studios were LA speaking, very close to each other, so it didn't bother them much. Once they got to the studio, they let Kelly know that they had arrived and then went to the dance studio where Dak, Lizzie, Kendall, Katie, James, Logan, and Carlos were standing around, talking.

"Hey!" Lizzie greeted with a finger-wave.

"Hey," Dak echoed as they walked over. "How are you guys?" He then smiled at Rhuben. "You look great, today."

"Please," Sydney dead-panned. "Even _I'm_ not in the mood for this today."

"Bad day?" Katie guessed.

"You don't know the half of it," Patrick mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

"Ok then," Dak noticed the slight tension in the room and wanted out as quickly as possible. "I've run them through everything that they're going to be evaluated on before we start officially working with them. I've showed them the fitting room as well, and I decided to leave this for last since…I can't dance to save my life." He grabbed Lizzie by the shoulders. "So we'll leave the rest to you guys and we'll see you later."

"Bye," Lizzie said cheerfully and the two left the room.

"Do you mind sitting over there so you're not in the way?" Rhuben asked as she turned to Katie and pointed to a bubble chair. "No disrespect, but I don't want you to get hit by a flailing appendage." Katie laughed lightly as she moved to do what she was told.

"Hey," Kendall blinked as Riley suddenly appeared at his side. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was looking directly at him. He blinked once more, taking a small step back, not used to having someone that wasn't afraid to create direct eye-contact. "About the crack that I made about your eyebrows before, it was out of line."

Kendall nodded and then waited for her to continue with her apology. When she didn't, his eyebrows furrowed together and he looked confused. "Are you trying to apologize?" he asked.

"No," Riley said simply. "I stated a fact, it was out of line."

"Can we get started please?" Rhuben asked impatiently. She pushed her hair out of her face and pulled it into a ponytail, immediately becoming serious. She motioned for her siblings to get behind her and they moved to sit on the floor by the mirrors to watch. "Could you guys please stand here?" She asked, widening her arms out in front of her. They nodded and quickly lined into place as she looked over them. "You haven't been dancing long have you?" She guessed.

"Not really," James replied as he scratched the side of his neck. "We've been singing more, since we were all in our school's choir and I've been singing and stuff since I was three."

"Alright," Rhuben nodded once before walking over to the boom box. "I'll just start with a routine that you guys know and I'll evaluate you on that."

"It's not going to be pretty." Carlos warned.

"Trust me," Rhuben crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't expect it to be."

She used the toe of her shoe to push the PLAY button on the boom box and took a step back, watching as the boys moved across the dance floor as the song _Big Time Rush _came out of the speakers. She nodded along to the beat as they worked hard on each move that they had, but then frowned when it came towards the ends of the song. She tilted her head to the side and looked over at her siblings, who looked just as confused as she did (though that wasn't much of a stretch for Patrick). She then looked over at Katie, who was sitting in the bubble chair that was hanging from the ceiling, a proud smile on her face. Rhuben shook her head lightly, tapping her fingers against her forehead and waited for the song to end before pressing STOP. She walked back over to the boys, noting that they were out of breath.

"Make note," she said, turning to Patrick. "That they're going to need a lot of time in the gym so they're not tired after one song," she then turned to James and looked him up and down. "Maybe not James as much, but the other three sure need it." She corrected herself and Patrick nodded.

"Is she supposed to be better or worse than Mr. X?" Carlos asked Logan in a loud whisper.

"She takes dancing _very_ seriously," Logan whispered back. "But she's good, if Gustavo hired her, then we can be great. Give her a chance."

Carlos nodded as he stood up straight, waiting for their evaluation.

Rhuben held her hands in front of her face as if she was in the prayer position as she thought for a moment. Finally, she placed her hands on her hips and then looked at the four boys, before starting with Carlos. "You obviously have the energy for this," she said to him. "You're very energetic as your own personality, but you're using that energy too fast in the routine, which causes you to tire out quicker. Plus, you seem to forget which way you're supposed to go at times, which makes things look very sloppy." She then moved onto Logan, her face softening ever so slightly.

"I know that you're a massive perfectionist and that it bugs you if you don't get something right the first time, but with dancing, that's what constant practice is for. Don't beat yourself up about it," she held her hands up by his face and moved them as if she was wiping a window. "I can see it in your face, each time you messed up. Your face is showing the audience that you're confident and that you're having fun, if you show them that you did something wrong, they'll judge you worse than usual. Plus, it doesn't hide the fact that you can't dance very well."

Logan nodded and she then turned to James, who gave her a charming smile. She made a face and quickly took a step back before speaking to him. "You obviously want this very much, and I can see that you're trying to prove that you want this, but you don't have to. The fact that you're here, and from what I can tell from my research, you want this more than anyone I can think of. But good looks and a handsome smile aren't going to help you through this alone. I think, sort of like Carlos, your over eagerness is what's keeping you from doing particularly well. But, it's also obvious that you're more skilled than the other guys." She then gave her attention to Kendall, who looked like he didn't have a care in the world.

Rhuben hesitated before speaking to him. "I don't know if it's your lack of self-confidence or you absolutely can't dance and know it so you're really insecure about it, but there's something…_off _about your dancing." She said slowly, as if thinking of exactly what she wanted to say, so she didn't offend him. "Obviously Gustavo saw something in you or you wouldn't be here, but you're not much of a dancer and it's showing in everything that you're doing. But the confidence is there when you sing, because you know you can. So, it might take a lot of extra work for you to get up to where the other two or even James is," she turned and started to walk back to her siblings. "But you guys have a _long _way to go."

"Are you kidding?" Katie cried, her eyes widening. "I thought they were great! That was the best I've seen them perform."

"To the untrained eye, maybe," Rhuben said to her patiently. She crossed her arms over her chest and jutted out her right hip. "But there was a lot of blues all over the place and towards the end when they all did what they wanted for their stage presence or whatever, it just made everything look sloppy and not put together at all, since they weren't on the beat. Plus, they were running out of steam at the end."

Katie looked like she wanted to say something else, but a warning look from Kendall kept her quiet. Her gaze then traveled down to Rhuben's wrist, where she noticed a dark purple mark. "Hey, what happened to your wrist?" she asked.

Rhuben looked down, as if just noticing it and then looked up at Katie. "I pinched it when I was helping Sydney put his dresser drawer back in." She rolled her wrist around. "It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks." She added. She noticed Logan looking at the mark oddly out of the corner of her eye, but didn't say anything. "Like I said, you have a lot of work to do."

"But like I said before," Kendall smiled. "We're willing to do the work."

"Even if you have to stay late the night before a performance to be sure that you got everything down and you didn't get _any_ sleep at all?" Rhuben asked, raising her eyebrow. "Because sometimes I don't think you guys know that you're getting yourselves into."

"They've been here three months already, I think they're ready!" Katie jumped in once more.

Rhuben gave a hint of a smile. "It's a good thing that you have her around," she said to Kendall. "'Cause out here, for the most part, the only people that you can trust are your family."

"And your friends." Carlos reminded her quietly.

"In La La Land, you can't even trust your friends." Patrick spoke up. "As sad as that is." He added quickly.

"Right, well, that's all that we needed to do for today," Rhuben said as she moved to grab her dance bag. "I just needed to evaluate you guys to see where to start working with you. You can all go home or whatever." She waved her hand.

"Wait," Carlos blurted out, grabbing their attention. "Do you want to come back and hang out at the crib?" He grinned. "We have a swirly slide."

Sydney's eyebrows furrowed together. "How do you have as swirly slide in your apartment?"

"Come by and you'll see."

He stayed silent and turned to his siblings. Patrick and Noah shrugged and turned to Riley and Rhuben, who had another silent conversation for a few moments. Rhuben finally turned back to the guys. "Ok," she said after a minute. "But only for a little while."

"Alright!" Carlos cheered and raised his arm for a high-five. Sydney flinched and backed away from him. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Sydney said brightly, making sure not to look at his siblings.

* * *

><p>"Hey Syd," Kendall called as he walked out of his room, carrying onto a large box. "I have something for you."<p>

"You do?" Sydney paused the game that he was playing and got to his feet. He slowly edged over to Kendall, curiously looking at him and the box he was holding onto. "You do?" He repeated as he tilted his head back so his fringe moved out of his eyes. "What is it?"

"I don't really know if you're into comic books or anything," Kendall said and bent down, placing the box into Sydney's hands. "But I was when I was your age. Spiderman is my favorite. Anyway, I don't read comics much anymore, and Katie is slowly growing out of them," he watched as Sydney put the box on the ground and quickly opened the flaps, revealing the box filled with comic books. "So I thought that you might like them."

Riley looked up from the Dome Hockey table and flipped her hair from her face as she watched the two of them.

"Wow," Sydney's eyes widened as he looked at them. "Spiderman is my favorite too!" He looked at Kendall, dimples appearing in his cheeks as he smiled widely. "Thank you! This is so cool!" He carefully closed the box and pushed it out of the way before hurrying back over to the video game.

"You're welcome." Kendall replied as he mussed Sydney's hair before going over to the Dome hockey table.

"What was that about?" Rhuben asked him as he stood at the side, waiting for a chance to play. His eyes moved over the Dome hockey game, not wanting to look either girl in the eye, in case he had over stepped some boundary and they were mad at him.

"Nothing," Kendall shrugged as he watched the twin girls play. "I just thought that he would like them. "

"Well, he does." Rhuben said with a nod.

"Thanks for that." Riley added.

"You're welcome."

"Are you guys staying over for dinner?" Carlos asked before throwing himself down the swirly slide, crashing to the floor.

"I don't know," Patrick hesitated before his turn to go. "Do you have enough for us?" He slid down the swirly-slide next, landing on his butt on the floor. "What are you having anyway?" He asked as he rubbed his tailbone.

"It's Friday, so it's Fish Stick Friday," Katie replied and then slid down the slide. She crashed onto her stomach on the floor. "With Tots." She added, getting to her knees and brushing off the front of her clothes. Patrick reached out and grabbed onto her hands, pulling her to her feet. "Thanks." She said with a small smile.

"You're welcome." Patrick replied.

"Uh, we should probably call our Dad first." Riley said, her eyes shifting to the side as she stepped away from the Dome hockey table. She looked over at Rhuben, who lightly tilted her head towards the door and then pointed to her watch. "He likes to have dinner on at a certain time, so if we don't tell him where we are…"

"No, we get it," Mrs. Knight said from the kitchen table where she was reading a magazine while she was waiting for dinner to finish cooking. "Go ahead and call him, let him know that we'd be glad to have you all over for dinner."

"Yeah, it'll be fun!" James added in a yell from where he was playing a video game with Noah, Sydney, and Logan.

Riley moved away from the table and pulled her phone from her pocket. As she called their father, Mrs. Knight called the others to the dinner table so they could start eating. "Oh, Riley," Mrs. Knight called to Rhuben as she moved by her to get to the dinner table. "Could you help me with the door please?" She asked, struggling to hold onto a large pan of tater-tots and keep the oven door from flying backup.

Rhuben moved to her side and carefully grabbed onto the oven door. "It's Rhuben, actually." Rhuben quickly corrected her as she grabbed the oven door and closed it after Mrs. Knight pulled the pan out of the oven and set it on the counter.

"Oh," Mrs. Knight made a light 'tsk' sound with her tongue as she took off the oven mitts and turned to Rhuben. "I'm sorry, sweetie." She reached out and lightly touched Rhuben's cheek. Rhuben quickly backed away from her, wincing a little as her eye stung. It watered a little and she quickly rubbed her eye, hoping Mrs. Knight didn't notice. "It'll take me a bit to get it, but I'll learn your names soon."

Rhuben silently nodded and then moved over to the table to get to the empty seat that was by Logan. She sat down and moved her napkin into her lap, waiting for Mrs. Knight to finish setting the table. Riley hung up from the phone, a hard look on her face as she relayed Robert's message that they could stay for dinner. As soon as the last platter of food was put down, she watched in shock with her siblings as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie reached out and started to pile the food onto their plates.

"Whoa," Noah said.

"Talk about a feeding frenzy." Patrick added.

The five siblings waited until their hosts finished and then slowly moved food onto their plates, allowing Mrs. Knight to get hers first. When they got the hint that they could start eating, the five started to shovel the food into their mouths. Katie's eyes widened as she watched them, holding her corndog away from her mouth. She looked over at Mrs. Knight, who looked concerned for a second and then blinked, looking away. When she looked back, the concerned expression was gone.

Patrick noticed their stares and quickly sat up straight, causing the others to stop as well. "Oh," he blushed. "When Riley doesn't cook, Dad does." He explained quickly. "And Dad's a _bad_ cook." He nodded like a bobble head until Sydney elbowed him in the side.

"You like to cook?" Mrs. Knight asked Riley, who shrugged.

"Every now and then."She replied shortly.

The rest of dinner went by like that. If the Jacksons were asked a question, they would answer shortly, otherwise they would leave their heads bent towards the table as they ate quietly, yet a little quickly. They listened as the others talked to each other, but still didn't contribute much to the conversation. Mrs. Knight was surprised though, when they offered to do the dishes, quickly turning them down so they could watch TV.

"Actually, it's getting late," Rhuben said. She reached out and ran a hand over Sydney's face as he yawned loudly, his eyelids dropping. "We should be getting home." She turned to Mrs. Knight and gave a small smile. "Thanks for having us over for dinner."

"It was my pleasure." Mrs. Knight said with a smile. She wiped her hands off on a dishtowel and leaned against the counter. "But if the boys are so tired, they can just spend the night here. We have enough space; there wouldn't be a problem with it."

Sydney's eyes lit up almost immediately, but Patrick and Noah were a bit more hesitant. "I don't know," Patrick said slowly. "Dad would want us to-"

"No," Riley interrupted. "It's fine." She turned and looked hard at Patrick and Noah. "Once we explain it, I'm sure Dad will thank Mrs. Knight for offering for them to stay overnight." Noah gave her a look but didn't say anything as he slowly nodded. "So you three can stay here, and Rhu and I'll just go home."

"Are you sure?" Patrick asked.

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Carlos said with a warm smile. "We can play more video games, eat more food and sleep in. I mean, it _is _the weekend."

"It's fine." Rhuben mouthed to them before going over to Sydney and giving him a kiss on the forehead and a hug. "Stay on your best behavior." She said as a warning.

"I will." Sydney replied before hurrying over to the boys that were sitting on the couch. He jumped onto the couch, landing in between James and Logan. Riley and Rhuben said goodbye to their brothers before heading towards the door.

"Well, since the guys are sleeping over," Logan said as he stopped Riley and Rhuben at the door. "And you're not doing anything right now; do you want to hang out?" He adjusted his sweater-vest. "You know, like old times?"

"We'd like to," Rhuben said slowly. "But we can't, we have other stuff that we have to do."

"But some other time," Riley nodded. "Alright?"

"That's fine," Logan smiled and then stepped forward to give the two girls a hug. They stood there with their arms at their sides before awkwardly giving him a hug in return, lightly patting his back. "I'll see you later then." He said with a wave, opening the door for them. "Bye." He closed the door behind them.

"Do you remember him talking that much?" Rhuben asked, a bewildered look on her face, causing Riley to lightly chuckle and shake her head. Rhuben changed the subject. "Do you think they'll be ok?" Rhuben asked as she and Riley headed towards the elevator.

"As long as they're away from Robert, they'll be fine." Riley said simply. "Soon, none of us will have to worry about him."

"And the sooner the better."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Not sure if I'm doing it well, but I'm trying to split the attention evenly with my characters and BTR, so chapters are gonna be pretty long for the most part. And here's the start of their 'tradition'. :) The girls will appear more in the next chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	17. How To Act Civil

**.:Chapter Seventeen – How to act civil:.**

"_I'm acting civil because I unfortunately need her help." ~unkown_

* * *

><p>"I still don't think this is a good idea," Jo said as she crossed her arms over her chest, hitching her purse up her shoulder.<p>

"Oh please, Jo," Stephanie rolled her eyes as she turned on the bench to face her blonde friend. "We're just hanging out at the mall for an hour, two tops." She hooked her long brown hair behind her ear, her green eyes flashing with amusement. "What do you think they're going to do?"

"Ditch us." Jo said simply. She shrugged when she noticed Camille's and Stephanie's disapproving stares.

Camille looked over at Stephanie and bit her lower lip, not sure what to say. Jo _did_ have a point. She had been a fan of theirs for years and wondered how they would act in real life in comparison to their image, she knew that in Hollywood your image was what you were supposed to act like in public, but in private you were usually very different. Rock starts though…they were well known for living life on the edge, being rebellious, seeing life as one big party and not answering to authority. So far, the Jacksons were acting the same was as their image and that was a bit disappointing to her. But it was also why she was trying to shard to be their friend; if Logan thought they were good people than she believed it. It wasn't like you could always become friends with people as soon as you met them; it was going to take some time.

And as much as she hated to admit it, deep down, it would be cool to be friends with celebrities. Big Time Rush weren't there yet, so they were going to have to wait a bit.

"Jo," Camille said slowly. "Are you sure that you're not acting this way because you feel a little…I don't know…threatened?"

Jo slowly turned her brown eyes to Camille, a confused expression on her face. Behind her, Stephanie shot Camille a look and Camille merely looked at her before looking back at Jo. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"As your best friend, I have the right to say this," Camille said and then gave a dramatic pause before giving a goofy smile. "I think that you're jealous that you're not going to be able to spend all the time you want with a certain blonde haired, green-eyed pop star." She sucked her cheeks in, trying not to laugh, but when Stephanie started to laugh, she lost it.

Jo finally smiled and reached out, hitting Camille on the arm. "You're crazy!" She declared. "I'm not jealous about anything." She then turned around and hit Stephanie on the arm as well. "You guys are so mean!"

"Sorry, Jo," Stephanie apologized, shifting her video camera to her right hand, laying her left on Jo's shoulder. "But you have to admit, the two of you would make a cute couple, and he flirts with you a lot as it is. _And _you've already gone out once."

"Yeah, but that was to a movie," Jo said, shaking her head. "You can't really call going to a movie a date because you don't even talk. Plus, he took me to an action film and I _hate_ action films."

"But he _did _hug you goodnight." Stephanie reminded him.

"Yeah, that part was nice." She shook her head again. "But whatever," she turned to Camille. "It's not like you know what you're talking about. _You're_ the one that won't ask Logan out and is waiting for him to ask you."

"I have to agree with her though," Stephanie pointed out. "If Logan likes Camille as much as he does, then he shouldn't be afraid to ask her out."

"Well, if you're waiting for that, you're going to be waiting for a long time." Rhuben commented as she and Riley walked over to the three girls. "Logan has a tendency to be indecisive about that sort of thing." She shrugged. "But if you want to wait, go for it."

"Hey, Riley. Hey, Rhuben." Stephanie greeted them with a smile as the three girls stood up.

"I'm Riley, actually." Riley held up her hand and then pointed over to her sister. "That's Rhuben."

"Oops," Stephanie blushed a little. "Sorry."

"It's alright, we get that a lot."

Jo and Camille stayed silent, Jo for the fact that she still wasn't sure that she liked them and Camille because she was thinking about what Rhuben had said, a troubled expression on her face. She looked them over, noticing their clothes. Riley was wearing a Bulls cap, a red Bulls basketball jersey, and black skinny jeans with Vans as Rhuben was wearing a black beanie, a purple tank-top with a black vest over it, and black skinny jeans with Vans. "I like your guys' outfits today, you look really cute."

"Thanks," Riley nodded as she briefly looked down at her clothes. She looked up at the girls again. "Sorry we're kinda late," she apologized, rubbing her arm. "We got a bit tied up with our chores."

"You still do chores?" Jo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You sound surprised," Rhuben flashed her eyes over to her. "Yes, we do chores."

"We're teenagers with a job, that's basically it." Riley added. "We go to school, we do homework, and we do chores just like you do." She shook her head, looking away.

_Ok then. _Stephanie took a deep breath before taking a step forward. "Now that we have that out of the way," she did a little dance. "Let's get some shopping done." She stuck out her right foot. "I definitely need some more shoes."

"Ooh, cute shoes." Jo agreed, clasping her hands together. She turned around, looking at storefront windows, and then squealed loudly, slapping Camille on the arm, causing Riley and Rhuben to stare. "And they're on _sale! _Let's go!" She and Camille hurried towards the store as Riley and Rhuben slowly walked after them with Stephanie.

"Are they always that….girly?" Riley asked, wrinkling her nose as she tried to think of the right word to say.

"Yep," Stephanie said with a smile. "But they're really cool to hang out with. They were the first friends I made when I got to the PalmWoods before I met the guys." She snickered a little. "Actually, I scared them into thinking that there was a PalmWoods ghost for a no-budget movie that I was making."

"You put it online, right?" Rhuben asked and then nodded. "We saw it, it was pretty good."

"Thanks."

The three girls followed Jo and Camille into Shiekh Shoes. As Stephanie went over to the athletic footwear, Jo and Camille went towards the heels that were on display, gushing over each pair that they found. Wanting to try and act civil like they had promised their brothers before, Riley and Rhuben gave their two-cents about which shoes they thought looked better whenever they were asked, but they typically acted the same way they did before, not talking unless spoken too, or just having silent conversations with each other.

"Alright," Camille shifted a box of new stilettos under her arm. "Who wants to go look at some clothes now?" She turned to Riley and Rhuben, wanting to make an effort. "What stores do you like to go to? We can go to them first?"

Riley's eyebrows rose in surprise. She looked over at Stephanie, who smiled encouragingly, and then over at Jo, who looked back at her, tilting her head to the side, as if sizing her up. Riley glanced at Rhuben out of the corner of her eye and then turned back to Camille. "PacSun, Hot Topic, Deb, Forever 21-"

"Oh," Jo's eyes lit up. "I _love_ Forever 21." She allowed herself to smile. "You have good taste."

"I should," Riley snorted. "Or else I wouldn't be our stylist." She lightly elbowed Rhuben in the side, causing her to smile. "C'mon." She turned on her heel and started to walk in the direction of the store, the others filing along beside her.

"So," Camille said after a few moments of silence. "How do you think that the guys are doing with their music? They said that you were going to evaluate them on everything to see where they stand." She pulled her hair into a low ponytail. "How'd they do?"

"Alright." Rhuben shrugged.

"Just alright?" Jo asked, pressing the topic even further. "They work really hard when they're not at the PalmWoods. They're just alright?" Her nose wrinkled a little.

Rhuben sighed, shoving her hands into her jeans pockets. "They have the potential," she explained slowly. "We're just wondering if they want to do it for the sake of something to do or if it's something they really, _really_ want."

"You can't deny that James really wants it." Stephanie piped up as she turned on her video camera and started to tape the people that walked by her. She did that whenever she wasn't sure what she wanted to do for a new film idea, just film random people until inspiration struck.

"No, you can't." Riley agreed. "But it's like Rhu said, there's a chance that he's doing it for the sake of something to do. We just need to be sure that they're willing to put in the work and are willing to take the long path to success." She tilted her head and looked at a mannequin as they passed a guy's clothing store. "It's not easy. A lot of people don't get that it takes a certain amount of dedication and passion to want something like this."

"What about you?" Camille asked, noticing the wistfulness of her tone. "Do you want it?"

"Dunno." Ruben shrugged, reaching up to grab onto her shoulder, grimacing. She lowered her arm; ignoring the other three's exchanged glances and picked up her pace, trotting into the front of Forever 21. "This is cool." She mumbled under her breath, picking up a purple and white striped t-shirt.

"Oooh, this is _so_ cute!" Jo rushed forward and grabbed onto a hot pink tunic dress. She held it up to herself and turned to the other girls. "I think I might get it." She held out the price tag and looked at it before looking at the other girls again. "What do you think?"

"So cute." Stephanie agreed laughing as Jo twirled along with the dress, just for the camera.

"If you're not getting it, I am." Camille agreed.

Jo turned to the twin girls. "What do you think?" she pressed.

Rhuben stayed silent and looked over at Riley, who bit her lower lip, looking it up and down. "Honestly," her upper lip curled. "I don't think that works for you." She took the dress and tossed it onto a rack before walking over to another one and picking up a light blue baby doll dress. She looked at it for a moment before turning back to Jo, noticing her hurt look. "This goes better with your hair color and skin tone, plus it brings out your brown eyes." She handed it over to her, suddenly looking away, looking shy.

"Thanks." Jo gave a genuine smile. "I really like it."

"You're welcome." Riley turned and went to look at a pair of black cargo shorts.

The girls fanned out around the store, calling to each other when they found something. _So, Jo looks like she finally turned around on her opinion on them. _Camille held up a sheer, white blouse looking it over. _I still don't really know how I feel._

"What do you think of this?" She asked Rhuben.

Rhuben shrugged in reply. "It's alright if you like that sort of thing." She said in a mumble with a shrug. She paused, noticing her own stand-offish tone and then sighed heavily. "But if you like it, then you should get it." She added.

"Mmm, I might get it later." Camille said as she replaced the shirt. She turned to Rhuben, resting her hand on the top of the rack that was next to her. "So Logan tells us that you guys are best friends and that you used to live in Texas together." Rhuben nodded. "It must have been hard to leave him to start your music career. But it's cool that you guys are working together now."

"I guess," Rhuben agreed. "He works really hard, but he's too much of a perfectionist if you ask me. "But that's Logie-Bear, always wanting to be the best at everything." She noticed an odd look flash across Camille's face, but didn't say anything. She reached up to look at the price tag of a shirt that was hanging on the wall. Camille's gaze lowered and she noticed a small dark spot on her hip.

"Hey what happened?" She asked, pointing.

Rhuben followed her gaze and then look surprised as she looked at it. "I don't know," she replied and then lifted her head. "I guess I hit myself in my sleep, I didn't even know it was there." She lowered her gaze to the ground, turning away from Camille.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Stephanie asked, walking over. "I'm getting hungry." She added, rubbing her stomach.

"How can you eat, like, all the time and _not_ gain a pound?" Camille asked, turning to her and poking her in the stomach, causing Stephanie to laugh. "I mean, you look good in practically everything. That's _so_ not fair."

"_Practically_ everything?" Stephanie narrowed her eyes in mock-anger. "What does that mean?"

"What do you think?" Camille challenged in reply, causing both girls to laugh and high-five each other. She turned as Riley and Jo walked over, Jo holding onto a bag. "You got that dress?" She smiled as Jo nodded eagerly. "Great, it looks so cute on you. I knew you would get it!" She then winked. "I'm sure Kendall will like it too."

"Shut up." Jo reached out to hit Camille on the arm with her bag. As she spun to the side, swinging her arm, she didn't notice Riley close her eyes and flinch as she took a step back. "So where are we going to get something to eat?"

"We could go to the Cascade Café," Riley suggested, letting out a heavy breath, rubbing her arm. "I mean, you guys invited us out, so we could treat you to lunch. Or, whatever. Whatever you want."

"The Cascade Café is fine; I've never eaten there before." Stephanie agreed. "But I heard a lot about it. The burgers are supposed to be really good." She pointed her arm in the direction that they were supposed to go. "Let's go!" She took a deep breath. "I don't really know how to ask this, so I'm just going to ask," she warned Riley and Rhuben, who nodded. "But what do you guys do when you're _not_ working on your music or doing appearances? It seems like you don't have a lot of time off."

"It seems like that," Rhuben agreed. "But only because we have so many things to do back to back. Whenever we have free time we do what we're doing now, go to the mall or the movies. Hang out at home. If we're back home in Australia and have a lot of free time, we'll usually go back to school for a while."

"What about going to parties?" Camille ventured to ask the question. "Do they get pretty wild?"

"You read a lot about us on the internet don't you?" Riley guessed. At their nods, her eyebrow twitched. "You can't believe everything that you read in magazines or on the internet, most of the time they take what really happened and twist it to make things more interesting. It's better to get it straight from the source." She said vaguely. "We're here."

The five girls walked up to the restaurant, grabbing the attention of the hostess. She noticed Riley and Rhuben and gave a bright smile. "Hey, what are you guys doing here? I thought you weren't working until tomorrow."

"We're not," Riley replied. "We just came to have some lunch." She motioned to Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, who waved. "Can you get us a table towards the back, Allie?"

"I'll try," Allie replied, holding up a finger. "Do you mind waiting for a minute?" She turned on her heel and walked away from the hostess stand.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I heard correctly." Jo said as she turned an odd look to Riley and Rhuben. "You guys work here?" At the twins' nods, she looked even more confused. "How can you work here and work on your music at the same time?"

"Good time management," Rhuben replied shortly.

"Our schedule isn't as hectic here as it is at home." Riley added. Rhuben frowned and gave her sister a sharp look, to which Riley replied with jutting out her jaw. She turned back to Allie as she came back and they followed her to sit down at the table that was set up. They got their menus and started to look over them, figuring out what to order.

"Excuse me?" A little girl's voice caught their attention and they all looked to the side to see a girl with her hair in braids, probably about the age of 7, standing next to them. "Can I get your autograph please?" Behind her stood a boy who looked slightly older, blushing a little. The girl stepped forward and held out a napkin towards Rhuben.

"Uh," Rhuben turned to Jo, Camille, and Stephanie. "Do you shiela's mind?" She asked in her Australian accent. When they shook their heads she turned back to the girl and boy with a bright problem. "No worries sweetie," she took the napkin. "What's your name?"

"Hailey." The girl replied and then turned to the boy behind her. "That's my brother Brandon."

"Nice to meet you." Riley said with a warm smile as she waited for her chance to sign the napkin.

"I can't wait for your guys' show next week." Hailey added.

"We can't wait for it either," Rhuben agreed. "Our first show in LA while working on our CD." She took the napkin back from Riley and handed it to Hailey. "We hope you enjoy it." She nodded at the two of them. "Have a good day."

"Cheers mate." Riley added with a wave, the two siblings waved back before walking away.

"Did you not want to sign autographs or something?" Stephanie asked, taking a long sip of her milkshake. "You seemed really hesitant about it at first." She looked at the two of them. _There's no way they could be embarrassed by it, it probably happens all the time when they're back in Australia._

"Well," Rhuben hesitated. "Not exactly." The right side of her face moved up into an expression that seemed like she was thinking hard, finding a way to explain it. "It's really rude if you ignore the people that you're with just to sign autographs. So we have this thing where if we're just walking around with people, we ask for permission to sign things and take pictures, so they don't feel put out. But if we're having dinner or are out with our family, we make fans wait until we're done and _then_ sign things. But since we don't actually have out food yet-"

Riley shrugged and finished her twins' sentence. "It's easier and more polite. No big thing."

_Wow, I guess they really __aren't__ like other celebrities. _Jo nodded slowly. _They don't act like they deserve everything; they have a part time job while they're working on their music. It seems like they really care about their fans too._

The girls got their food and had a bit of small-talk over lunch, but Riley and Rhuben had closed in on themselves once more, only answering questions when directly asked and giving short answers. Other times they would just make a grunting sound. They finished their lunch, walked around to a few more stores in the next hour and a half, and then Riley and Rhuben said that they had to go home, quickly said goodbye, and then walked towards the parking lot to get to their car.

"So what do you think?" Camille asked as she, Stephanie, and Jo walked off in the opposite direction. "Of them, I mean?"

"I think they're cool." Stephanie said with a nod. "Not as bad as the media makes em' seem. Logan was right."

"I agree." Camille added.

"They're not as bad as I thought." Jo concluded. "I guess."

* * *

><p>"What do you guys want to do today?" Kendall asked as he turned off the TV and leaned back on the couch, rubbing his eyes. "C'mon, it's Saturday and we've done nothing but watch TV all day so far. Let's find something to do."<p>

"We could…go play some hockey or something?" James suggested, flipping his hair out of his face. He leaned to the side and tilted his head to look at Katie's laptop, as she had it on her lap, sitting next to him. Noticing that she was looking at her screen, she made a whiny sound and pushed him away.

"Kelly said that you guys had to limit your hockey playing, remember?" Katie reminded them. "They don't want you to get hurt before we go to New York." She closed her laptop with a light clacking sound as the locks moved into place and then rolled her eyes. "Not that that would stop you idiots."

Kendall smiled at his baby sister. She was right. For the most part, nothing could stop them from playing hockey, not even the fact that they resorted to roller hockey or lobby hockey from time to time as they didn't get a chance to always go to the hockey rink. But, for once, they had listened to Kelly and Gustavo when they said to cut back; they didn't want to jeopardize their trip to New York even more than they did. So they had to listen.

"We could always do our homework." Logan suggested. He rolled his eyes at the groans and the fake puking sounds he got in reply. "If you get it done as early as possible, like I do, then you don't have to worry about doing it later."

"Yes, but unlike you, if we did it early, we would stop there." Kendall reached over and poked Logan in the cheek. "_You_ would just get started on the homework for the next week.

"Yeah, no offense Logan, but I'm not a nerd." James declared. He leaned forward and picked up a magazine, starting to flip through it. He let out a cry as a pillow smacked him in the head and then looked up to see Logan smirking at him. "You're going to pay for that." He leapt up from the couch, grabbed Logan, and wrestled him to the floor.

Katie merely got up off of the couch and stepped over them, walking to the refrigerator to get something to drink. She was so used to them wrestling and getting in fights with each other that she found a sort of entertainment with it. Plus, she usually bet against Carlos over who was going to win a typically ended up winning his money, so that was a plus.

"Maybe we should see if the Jacksons want to hang out." Carlos mused. He noticed Kendall turned a curious look towards him and then shrugged. "Remember?" Carlos asked. "Kill em' with kindness." He sat up straight, spinning his helmet in his hands. "I figured that it would be a good idea, you know, since we're going to be working with them."

"Riley and Rhuben are at the mall with the girls." Logan called out from where his face was being pushed into the floor. _I hope things are going well with them._

"So we'll ask Patrick, Noah, and Sydney." Carlos continued. He turned to Kendall, seemingly wanting to get his permission for it. "You said that you weren't going to try and stop being their friend."

"Plus, they might be able to give you guys more pointers about what to expect when we go to New York." Katie added, placing her now empty glass of milk into the sink to rinse it out. She made sure to do it after so many times her mother got on her case about leaving dirty dishes around. "And trust me; you're going to need all the help that you can get."

"Katie," James's head popped up from over the couch as he kneeled on the ground. "Are you ever going to be helpful or do you just like to make our lives harder?"

"I like to make your lives harder," Katie replied with a smug smile. "What do you think? I'm your little sister, that's my job."

"Does anybody have their number?" Kendall asked as he started to pat his pockets for his phone. "We can call them over here; they seemed to have had a good time when they slept over last week."

"Yeah, that was fun." Carlos agreed with a smile.

"Up until you guys drank too much soda and had to pee all night long." Katie reminded him.

"That was funny too."

"I have it," Logan pushed James off of him and got up from the floor, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. He dialed a number into his phone and looked up when he noticed the silence that came back his way. "What?" He asked.

"How do you have their number?" James asked, completely confused and jealous. "Better question, how come you didn't share it with us? You have a celebrities' number in your _phone_!"

"Uh, I got the number to Blazing Phoenix from the phone book," Logan replied, holding the phone away from his mouth. "And Ronan gave me their number, duh." He added, rolling his eyes. "You see, you wouldn't be in this predicament if you were smart like me."

"If I were smart like you, I wouldn't have lost touch with them in the first place." James shot back.

Logan scowled as Katie laughed, but then straightened when he heard a voice on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, is this Patrick? It's Logan. We were wondering if you guys wanted to come over to hang out if you weren't doing anything. Yeah, we're bored. Sounds good, we'll meet you down there." He ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket. "They're going to meet us here." He explained. "In ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?" Carlos repeated, wrinkling his nose. "But they live halfway across the city, how can they get here in ten minutes?"

Logan shrugged. "They might have already been out or something, I don't know."

"What are we going to talk to them about while we're hanging out then?" Carlos changed the subject. "I mean, they don't really like to talk about themselves much, and whenever we do ask a question they don't really give a straight answer."

"Have you guys ever thought that the reason they could be acting the way they are is because they're homesick?" Katie asked. She gave a short roll of her eyes when the guys exchanged glances. "I mean, think about it. They're thousands of miles away from their home and they have no friends here. I'd be homesick too if I was the only one out here in LA."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't have come out here without me." Kendall reminded her, reaching out and giving her a light hug around the shoulders.

"That's true." Katie agreed before lightly elbowing him in the stomach to get her to let go. "Anyway, why don't you try to talk to them about their home? That should help them loosen up a bit."

"If it doesn't make them even more depressed." Logan reminded her. "There's always that possibility.

Katie shrugged in reply and went back to her computer as the guys settled down on the couch once again, to watch some TV while they waited. True to their word, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney arrived at the apartment in ten minutes. Sydney knocked on the door twice before opening it slowly, poking his head in.

"Hello?" He called.

"Hey," Carlos greeted as he hopped over the couch and walked over to the three boys, grinning like crazy. "Glad that you guys could make it."

"Well, you invited us over, so…" Patrick shrugged, trailing off.

"So what do you want to do?" James asked as the rest of the guys got off of the couch to greet them. "We could go down to the pool.

Noah's eyes widened slightly and he nudged Patrick in the back. Patrick looked over his shoulder at his twin brother and nodded once before turning back to the guys with a pained smile. "Didn't bring our trunks." He shrugged apologetically.

"I don't think you'd have any that could fit me, either." Sydney added quickly.

"That's alright, we can do something else." Kendall rubbed his chin. "Hmm, we're not really supposed to play hockey for a while, maybe we can throw the football around or something."

"That sounds good," Noah said with a nod and a small smile. "Let's do that."

"Cool, let me just get a football." Kendall smiled before disappearing to his room and Logan, Carlos, James, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney moved to wait out in the hallway.

"Katie?" Patrick grabbed her attention. "Aren't you coming too?"

"Uh," Katie hesitated as she looked back down at her laptop before looking up at the boys once again. "You want me to come?" She asked, to be sure. She wasn't really invited by the guys in the first place and didn't want to tag along if they didn't want her there. Plus, she didn't know how to play football, so there was that.

"Sure," Patrick gave a charming smile and Noah and Sydney nodded in reply. "It'll be fun."

"Ok then," Katie closed her laptop once more and got to her feet, walking over to them. "Thanks, uh…" she paused, thinking back to what Lizzie had said before. _You can tell them apart by the clothes that they're wearing…_Katie made a face when she realized that neither Patrick nor Noah were wearing their specific colors that day, both opting to wearing a black t-shirt with a long white sleeved shirt underneath and jeans. _I might as well guess. _"Patrick?" She phrased it as a question, in case she was wrong.

"Mhm," Sydney nodded. "You got it."

"So how do you guys typically tell each other apart?" Logan asked, drawing their attention away from Katie, who breathed a sigh of relief. "I mean, I'm sure you get this a lot, but I've always been curious about it. Other than colors I mean."

Noah shrugged. "I dunno." He replied. "Some people get it, others don't."

"What he means is," Sydney piped up. "Some people can figure them out pretty quickly, but others have a harder time of doing it."

Logan nodded as Kendall came out of his room with the football in his hands. He raised his arm and threw it over to James and the group went to the elevators. As they stood in the elevator, Logan couldn't help but feel that someone was watching him and looked around. He noticed that Sydney was openly watching him and didn't look away when Logan gave him a small smile, not sure what else to do. He was the last one off of the elevator and also couldn't help but notice that small boy looking at everyone that passed him, shying out of the way whenever someone came too close. Patrick put an arm around his baby brother's shoulders and he almost immediately relaxed.

They walked out to the PalmWoods Park and started to throw the football around. It was kind of awkward at first, no one was sure what to say or do. Even if they had spent a day/night with the three boys, they still weren't sure how to act around them. It didn't seem to bother the three boys much, though, as they just seemed happy to be throwing the ball around. Katie stood a little off to the side, not really sure how to throw a football or catch one properly, but no one made fun of her for her attempts.

It wasn't until Kendall started to talk about a hockey highlight that he had seen on ESPN did the other boy start to talk a little bit. Patrick and Sydney spoke up a bit more than Noah did, but at least they were talking.

"How come you don't speak in you Australian accent?" Katie suddenly blurted out, after having listened to them for a few minutes. The realization of it hit her quickly; she didn't notice it before then. It was kind of odd, she didn't see anything about it on any website, and she knew about them well enough. She shuffled her feet as Patrick turned her way, a question in his eyes. "I mean, since I first met you, you've just spoken in your American accent."

"Which is _really_ good, by the way." Carlos added.

"It's just our preference." Sydney explained as he caught the football land threw it over to James. "Whenever we're in America and we're not with fans or on a talk show or are at an appearance, we use an American accent because it's easier. But if we're doing one of those things or if we're at home, we spoke only in our Australia accent."

"That's cool." Logan agreed. "Do you ever get slang words mixed up?"

Noah shook his head.

"Only if we're been back home for a while and then come back to the US." Patrick clarified quickly, shooting Noah a look.

"Hey!" Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Katie, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney turned at the sound of the voice, and spotted Robert sitting in the driver's seat of a black minivan, glaring at them. They hadn't heard him come up. "What are you doing here? Let's go!" He barked. "We're late!"

Wordlessly, Sydney handed the football over to Katie and moved into Noah's side, pressing his face into the fabric of his shirt. Katie looked over at Patrick, surprised to see that his expression changed quickly from anger to something to nothing. He gave the others a short wave before following his brothers over to the black van. As they climbed in, Robert glared at the five remaining teenagers before peeling out of the parking lot.

"They weren't here that long." Carlos said as he rubbed the back of his neck, watching as the car drove off. "They, like, just got here."

"I guess they were _really_ late for whatever it is they needed to go to." Kendall said as he spun the ball in his hands before throwing it back to over to Carlos. He noticed that Logan was watching the car with an odd expression on his face. "What's up, Logie?"

"That was weird." Logan murmured, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What was?" James asked, turning to him.

Logan frowned as the others turned to face him. He hesitated, wondering if he should tell them what he had seen. Finally, he decided against it, his eyes were probably playing tricks on him as it was. "Nothing." He said quietly. "Never mind."

* * *

><p>"Ow," Riley winced as Rhuben pressed a cotton ball with foundation to her face. She pulled away, lightly bringing a hand up to her jaw, closing her eyes. A dark purple bruise was sitting on her lower<p>

"Sorry." Rhuben apologized as she brought her arm back; waiting for her sister to give her the signal that she could keep covering the dark bruise on her face.

"It's not your fault," Riley muttered in reply.

"So what are we going to do when it comes to going to New York?" Patrick asked from where he was sitting on the side of the bathtub with his brothers. The five of them were crammed into the bathroom with the door locked, just in case.

As soon as Robert had picked the three boys up, he had taken them back home and forced them to sit in the living room with him until Riley and Rhuben got home. As soon as the girls walked through the front door, they noticed the angry look on his face and dodged around him, getting to their brothers, ushering them upstairs. Robert then took his anger out on his eldest daughters, hitting them over and over against until they stopped resisting him. He then grabbed his keys and left the house once more. Patrick hurried back down the stairs as soon as he was sure that Robert was gone and took them up to the bathroom, locking the door behind them.

"What do you mean?" Rhuben asked.

"I mean, what are we going to do to be sure nothing happens?" Patrick insisted. "Not that we can guarantee it. But being in a different city, especially it being one that big…it'll be easier for him to find something that we're doing wrong."

No one said anything after that; they were all thinking what could possibly happen. They knew that Robert was going to keep them from hanging around Big Time Rush as much as he could. There were bars all over the place, so that wasn't going to help their situation either. At that moment, it looked completely hopeless.

"What are we going to do?" Sydney repeated.

No one could answer.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **If anyone is confused, I believe that Riley and Rhuben would gravitate towards Stephanie more at first since she's more of a tomboy, and then become really good friends with all three of the girls. You'll see it as the story goes along. On the flip side, Patrick is more open with people, so he ends up becoming friends with the guys, fairly quickly, though he doesn't actually trust them yet.

Not my best chapter, but I hope you guys liked it. It'll get to them in NYC soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	18. How To Get Ready For The Big Time

**.:Chapter Eighteen – How to get ready for the big time:.**

"_I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught." __ ~Winston Churchill_

* * *

><p>"Ok, so when you guys are all done today, I need you to come to the conference room," Kelly said as she walked the boys to Rocque Records. She was looking at her PDA as she walked, her heels clacking against the ground. She wasn't even looking where she was going, being in LA for so long made her that confident about traveling there. "We need to talk to you <em>and<em> the Jacksons about what's going to happen when you guys go to New York."

In excitement, Carlos reached out and punched Logan on the shoulder, causing the smarter boy to give a disapproving frown before smiling back.

"I can't believe we're finally going." James said, a dream smile sliding onto his face. "Hey, do you think that we'll be able to go to the Apollo theatre?"

"Or the Rockefeller center," Kendall spoke up. "The ice rink is _insane_; I bet we could get a good game of hockey going." He turned to Katie, who was walking at his side, trying not to roll her eyes at the boys' outward excitement. "What about you, Katie? What do _you_ want to do while we're in New York?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, thinking for a minute. "Do you mean _besides_ going busking?"

"We all know that you love money, Katie," Carlos said as he moved to her other side, pushing James out of the way and placing a hand on her shoulder. "But there has to be something else that interests you besides that."

"Umm," Katie thought about it, looking at the sky as she did so. "Well, I guess it would be cool to see the Statue of Liberty. You know, being able to see it up close. Or go to Times Square, I bet the stores are pretty cool."

"Everything about New York is appealing," Kelly agreed as she put down her PDA. "You guys will definitely have some time off to go do some sight-seeing, that's something that we're going to talk about when you get to the meeting." She looked at her watch and started to walk a little bit faster, prompting the others to move at a light trot to keep up with her. "We also have to talk about the photo shoot and how that's going to work, _much differently _than the one that Gustavo tried to orchestrate. And today you guys are going to start working on your four songs for the show at Planet Hollywood. But we need to do some vocal training first."

"Is that what the Jacksons are going to be helping us with today?" Carlos asked.

"That and you're going to start going over your wardrobe for the performance." Kelly nodded. "So you're doing vocals, dance practice, and wardrobe today. You'll be rotating through everything that needs to be done before we leave." She pulled up her PDA once more. "Oh, that reminds me, I need to let your teacher know that you guys will be out of town for a couple of days."

"How long are we going to be gone?" Katie asked.

"One day to get into the city and be rested, since we don't know what time the flight is yet. The next day is for rehearsals and an interview with the magazines, the day after is for the photo shoots and more rehearsal, you have a day off, and then it's the performance day. Then we go back home. So…about five, six days. We may need to condense it down to two or three."

"Or we can keep it at six so we can hang out with our lovely fans." James said with a grin. "I mean, we already have fans that are going, and other people there that are fans of the DarkElements may become our fans as well. So maybe we can stay an extra day and hang out with them."

"No, James, you _don't _have a big ego." Kendall said, speaking as if he had answered James' question. He laughed along with Carlos, Logan, Katie, and Kelly.

Katie's laughter was cut short as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and looked at the screen, curiously, to see that she had gotten a text message. She didn't recognize the number and she didn't know who would be texting her, the only people she typically texted were her mother (when she needed to be picked up from somewhere), her brother, and Logan, Carlos, and James. But she was with them now.

Katie pulled open the text and as she read it, her expression changed from one of confusion, to slight amusement.

_Hey girl, hey! It's Lizzie! I got your number from Dak, from Kendall. Hope you don't mind. Anyway, we're going to be in New York for a day while you guys are out there, Mom and Dad are casting something and Dak has an audition. Let's hang out! :) 3_

Katie wasn't sure how to respond to the text. She didn't have many girlfriends back home, only Maddie and another girl named Krista. But they weren't even really that close either; they hung out a lot, but since Katie was typically into less girly things, they usually did a lot without her. But when they played field hockey together, it seemed like nothing was wrong. Still, she could tell that after she moved out to LA they weren't as close as they used to be. Maddie only called when she wanted some of the guys and Katie usually charged her for it (now she was starting to beg for tickets to the Planet Hollywood show) and Krista stopped talking to her the day after she left.

She stuck close to the guys after that, feeling that she was better off by herself and with them for company along with her mother and the maintenance staff. But now there was another girl that was going through the same thing she was, a brother that was famous (even bigger than her own brother) and she really wanted to hang out with her.

It was a nice change.

Weird, but nice.

Katie slowly typed a response: _Uh, yeah, that sounds cool. Just, I don't know, let me know when and where. _She got a response almost immediately: _Awesome! I love New York, I know where everything is, and we're going to have a blast! See you then! :) _Katie put her phone back into her pocket and sped up a little to keep pace with her brother. Now there was a light spring in her step and a small smile on her face.

They arrived at Rocque Records and Kelly started to walk off towards Gustavo's office as the boys and Katie headed towards a piano room. As they went, Logan looked along the walls that held posters of bands and groups that Gustavo worked with before as well as awards and records that Gustavo received from those bands. As they passed the staff room, Logan looked and then did a quick double-take. Robert and Sydney were in the room. Sydney had a small water bottle in his hands, looking down at it and Robert leaned over him, a hand on his shoulder, talking in a low voice. As Robert continued to speak, Sydney suddenly squeezed his eyes shut and he nodded rapidly. Robert moved his hand to Sydney's neck and the small boy's eyes closed tighter.

Logan looked away as they passed the staff room and jumped into the conversation that James, Carlos, and Kendall were having about how many people they thought would be at their performance. Finally, they arrived at the practice room where Patrick and Noah were sitting by on a piano bench, talking quietly to each other. Well, Patrick was talking and Noah was nodding quietly as he listened. Every now and then, he would bring up a hand and make some sort of shape with it, and then Patrick would nod and then say something back. They looked up when the guys and Katie walked into the room.

"G'day," Patrick greeted as he got up from the bench. Noah smiled and waved. "Glad you guys are here. Are you ready to get to work?"

"Yeah, what are we working on for our first day?" Logan asked with a pleasant smile. "Where are Riley and Rhuben? I saw Sydney on the way in with your Dad." He blinked as Noah shivered slightly.

"Rhu is in the dance studio and Riley is in the wardrobe room." Patrick replied as Noah walked over to the piano to grab a stack of papers that were sitting on top. "I think they're getting things ready for when they start to work with you." He replied.

"We're working with you guys on your vocals for now, then you'll move to dance rehearsal, and then onto wardrobe." Noah added as he walked amongst the four boys, handing out a sheet of paper. He looked at Katie, as if just noticing her, and then gave her a warm smile before continuing back to the piano.

Katie smiled shyly in return.

"You're going to use these later, but I want the guys that I'm not working with to study them while I work on your vocals individually." Patrick said, taking on the leadership role. "Noah will take down what he thinks that you need to work on and we'll go from there." He turned and sat on the piano bench as Noah climbed up on top and sat on it, crossing his legs, holding onto a notebook. Patrick frowned for a minute before turning to Katie. "Do you want to sit here?" he asked, motioning to the spot beside him.

"Sure," Katie replied with a shrug before moving to sit down on the bench.

"Carlos, why don't we start with you?" Noah suggested, pointing a pen towards him. "Stand next to the piano please."

"No problem," Carlos leapt to his feet and hurried over to stand next to the piano. "So what are we going to be doing?"

"For now, we're going to be working on your vocal runs." Patrick replied and to show him what he meant, he quickly played a scale on the piano to show him what he meant. "So we're going to start here, with a low A." He tapped the key a few times so Carlos could get a feel of where he was to start. "Ready?" Carlos nodded. "Ok, I'll play it first and then the second time I play it, you sing along to it." Patrick placed both hands on the piano and played the scale in a steady rhythm. He lifted his eyes, curing Carlos to sing.

When Carlos opened his mouth, he started to screech the scale in a loud voice, causing Noah to immediately slap his hands over his ears and Patrick to make a face. He quickly started to wave his hands around.

"Stop, stop, _stop_! Oh my god, belt up!" Patrick cried. Kendall, Logan, and James burst out into hysterical laughter as Katie rolled her eyes and Carlos grinned proudly. "What are you _doing_?"

"I'm trying to make you laugh," Carlos replied innocently.

"Why?" Noah questioned.

"I don't know," Carlos shrugged. "You guys just seem so serious all the time. And you seemed like you were having another bad day, so I thought that I would try and help cheer you up." He smiled that infectious smile one more time.

Patrick laughed a little, shaking his head as he looked over at Noah. Noah looked back at him with a tiny smile before turning back to Carlos, holding out his hand. "Thanks for that," he said honestly. "I needed it, now can we get to work please? I need your helmet." Carlos let out a shriek as he pulled it off of his head and held it to his chest.

"Ignore him," Katie muttered, now looking completely embarrassed to know him. "He's so attached to his helmet that it's _very_ unhealthy and it makes him look even more idiotic than usual."

"It'll only be while you sing," Patrick pressed Carlos. "Just so you don't have a subconscious feeling to touch it or something. I need your hands at your sides and for you to be standing properly, you can't be distracted."

"Oh," Carlos sighed as he took it off. "Alright."

"Ok, let's start again."

They ran through the vocal work with Carlos a few more times, and then James having to only went through it twice. It was obvious that he knew that he was good, you could tell from the way he stood up straight, completely confident. He had a good range, could hit some high and low notes, but with a bit of work could go a bit further on the scale. Kendall did a good job with it, while he didn't have the confidence James did, he was a good singer. Most people wouldn't know how to place him in a band with other people, but you could see that even if he didn't believe it, he had something about him that worked. Logan, much like when they were dancing for Rhuben the first time, was very nervous about getting things right. His voice cracked multiple times and other times he would show that he was thinking of what the next note was on his face.

Noah didn't say anything about it, he just wrote all of the notes down on his notebook so he could show them to Gustavo, his siblings, and Dak so they could help whatever it was that they needed help on. When Patrick had them run through their vocals together, Noah couldn't help but note that they sounded good together. Even better than some of the other music groups that he had heard live didn't have the same natural chemistry that they had with each other. If Noah had to guess, they were probably going to be a group together for a while.

But it all depended on what the fans at Planet Hollywood thought.

"Nice job," Patrick said with a grin as he stood up from the piano bench, a half hour later. "That was really great guys." He motioned to Noah. "We're going to take the notes that Noah took and then make photo-copes of them give to Gustavo, Dak, Kelly, and the others and to you guys so you can see what you need to work on."

"My suggestion is that you start doing some vocal exercises every day, not just when you're going to see Gustavo." Noah added. He looked up as the door to the room opened and Sydney walked inside, looking down at a Nintendo DS. "Hey Little Man." He greeted.

"Hi," Sydney looked up from his game and walked over to the piano, resting his arms on it, looking at the boys and Katie. "What are we doing?" he asked.

"We just got finished working with them on their vocals and now we have to get changed so we can start working on their performance for the show in New York." Patrick explained patiently, moving his hair out of his face. "Mind taking Katie to the practice room while we get done?" He asked, noticing his little brother's sweatshirt, shorts, and tennis shoes.

"Ok," Sydney said simply before taking Katie's hand and pulling her off of the bench and out of the room.

* * *

><p>When Big Time Rush finally entered the dance studio where the Jacksons were sitting on the floor, stretching, Gustavo burst into the room after them, looking even more stressed than they had ever seen him before. His eyes were darting around the room and he kept looking at his watch. He looked over at Big Time Rush and then turned to Rhuben, who was watching his every move.<p>

"So, I need you to get these guys into top shape," Gustavo said, his voice sitting at a louder tone than most people would converse with. He wasn't yelling, but he wasn't exactly talking either. "I need them to be as good as-"

"I get the point, Gustavo." Rhuben interrupted. She had listened to him with no expression on his face. If anything, she looked very bored, as if she had heard Gustavo tell it to her a million times before. "I know what I'm doing." She slowly smirked. "Even if you don't."

Gustavo grunted and pointed a finger at her menacingly before turning on his heel and leaving the room. The boys' mouths were dropped open with shock. They had _never_ seen Gustavo be back-talked to and allow them to live.

Riley held up a hand and Rhuben leaned over and gave her a low-five before going back to her stretching. She looked up as James asked a question. "So why are you guys all wearing sweatshirts or long-sleeved shirts?" He asked. "Don't you think you'd be a little hot?"

A quick look of panic flashed over Riley's' face, which Logan noticed, before it cleared. "It helps you lose water weight." She replied patiently. She pulled down the sleeves of her sweatshirt, through they were already down to her wrists. "And since people really care about what you look like, you have to stay in shape so…"

Uncomfortable with the silence, Kendall cleared his throat and started to speak. "So do you guys want to hear a funny story?" He asked. When Sydney nodded, his eyes widening slightly, he continued. "So after you guys had left," he nodded over to Patrick, Noah and Sydney. "We were playing some more and we saw Bitters going through the PalmWoods Park, being the usual tyrant that he is ordering people around-"

"You'd think that he had some sort of fortress rather than an apartment building." Riley remarked as she pulled her leg back behind her and stretched her thigh.

"He hates kids." Logan explained.

She snorted as she made a face, rolling her neck. "Then why would he want to make an apartment building for the _future famous _if they're all going to be kids and teenagers?" She muttered something like 'bloody boofhead' under her breath.

"For the money," Kendall said patiently. "Anyway, we saw him ordering some kids around, saying that they couldn't walk on the grass because he did something special with it, I don't know," he rolled his eyes. "So Carlos took the football, reared back, and threw it as hard as he could, _nailing _Bitters on the back of the head. He didn't know who actually did it, but because he's so suspicious of us as it is, he keeps glaring at us everywhere we go."

Patrick and Sydney laughed, Noah gave a small smile, and Riley and Rhuben let out a slight chuckle. Rhuben got to her feet and dusted her hands off. "Alright, let's get started since we don't have a lot of time." She immediately got to the point as the others got to their feet. "The last time that I worked with you guys, we worked on the first two songs that you need for the performance, today we're going to work on the last two. So get up."

"Line up like you did last time," Riley added.

"No problem, Beautiful." James said with a smile as he got to his feet.

The twin girls exchanged confused glances, before turning back to James. "Who are you talking to?" They asked in unison.

"Both of you." James' smile grew wider.

Sydney looked over at his sisters and held back a smile, pressing his lips together tightly when he noticed the pleased expressions on their faces. As they're usually so good at hiding any emotion they want, he and his brothers were very good and detecting and change in them easier than anyone else could. He turned to Noah, who had the same expression on his face and the two smiled at the same time.

"Thanks Handsome," Rhuben returned quickly. "Can we get to work please?" She jumped up, spreading her legs out as she landed on the ground. "Spread out." She instructed, holding out her arms. "Ok, we're going to start with 'Any Kind of Guy' and James, since you're first; you're going to be in the middle. It may look like it'll off-set the rest of you since you're so tall, but trust me, this will work." She waited for them to move into position and then she looked over at Syd. "Do you mind, for now, just sitting back? I want to work on something."

"That's fine," Sydney replied pleasantly and then held up his DS, grinning from ear-to-ear. It was the first time that the boys had seen him actually smile. "I have some aliens I need to kill anyway." He walked over to Katie and sat down next to her as he turned on the game, immediately becoming engrossed in it.

"Kind of makes you miss that age, doesn't it?" Patrick remarked, causing everyone else to laugh.

"Ok," Rhuben motioned to Riley, Patrick, and Noah to move next to her so they were all standing across from Big Time Rush. "We're going to be doing the moves with you, slow at first and then getting faster and faster so we can be sure you get it all in. Now," she spread her legs shoulder width apart. "Start with your legs here, good." She nodded when they did as they were told. "Drop low and punch your right arm across your body, rock back, and jumped onto your right foot and spin onto your left." She did the movements slowly and her siblings mimicked her. She froze in the last pose, watching as the boys tried. Carlos spun too fast and fell to the floor. "Try it again," she instructed. "Don't spin to fast, plant your foot _firmly _on the ground so you stop."

She nodded once more when the boys did as they were told. "Ok, now…"

For the next hour they worked on the dance routine for Any Kind of Guy, the guys improving as they did it each time. They weren't perfect yet, but they were getting there. She stopped them when she was sure that they had the gist of it, reminding them that they had to keep practicing whenever they got the chance to be perfect. They were just starting on Halfway There when Gustavo burst into the room, saying that they needed to get to the meeting at that moment.

"What about them going to get wardrobe done?" Riley asked, crossing her arms over her chest, sweat dripping down her forehead. "I need an idea of what they're going to wear when-"Gustavo cut her off, much like Rhuben did to him before.

"They don't have time for that, you're going to have to do it in New York." Gustavo said.

"Hey, this process takes time!" Riley snapped back. "I can't do it all when we get there."

"Deal with it," Gustavo replied. "I may be paying you to help them, but you still have to do it on my time." He waited and Riley merely shrugged. "Good, now get that sweat off and meet us in the conference room, pronto." He turned and left the room, letting the others gather their stuff.

"Bored?" Riley asked Katie as she moved over to her bag to get her towel. She had been watching Sydney play the video game, but after a bit, she just started to watch the boys, wincing every now and then when they made a mistake. To her surprise though, Rhuben didn't yell at them, she patiently explained to them how to correct their mistake. If she was annoyed at the constant mistakes, she hid it well. Now Katie looked up at Riley.

"Not really," Katie replied with a shrug. "I'm just thinking." She shook her head. "How come you guys play instruments _and_ dance?"

Riley looked at her evenly. Katie wasn't sure if she was going to respond. "You already know so much about us," she said, her tone sounding a bit accusing. "Don't you already know the answer to that?" She moved her hair off of her shoulder as Katie looked away, for once, stumped with a comeback. "Just to be different." She said and then turned away from her. "And for the fucking money." She added quietly.

"What's up with Kendall?" Noah murmured to Rhuben as the two grabbed their bags. He reached out and lightly grabbed onto her arm, getting her attention. "It doesn't look like he's trying."

"It's because he's not," Rhuben said after a moment, her eyes narrowing slightly. "It's like I said when we were evaluating them; he doesn't dance, like at all. My guess is that, performance wise, it's his biggest insecurity, but he's doing well enough to pass."

"Are you going to help him?"

"Can't help someone that doesn't _want_ to be helped."

Noah nodded. Riley, Patrick, and Sydney, who had been listening to the conversation, moved to complete their circle. "We could always trick him into admitting it," Sydney said and then smiled as a mischievous look came to his eye. "It's more fun than _waiting_."

"You've been around Riles and Rhubes too long." Patrick commented dryly. "But he has a point of it being more fun."

"No," Rhuben shook her head. "It's his responsibility, let him do it." She moved her hair off of her forehead. "Besides, we have other things to worry about than someone that I'm not sure even wants this."

* * *

><p>"Ok, so we need to talk about what some rules while you guys are in New York," Gustavo said bluntly as soon as the two bands were crammed into the conference room with him, Kelly, Robert, Ronan, and Mrs. Knight. "You have to do what we say when we say it, I can't have you all running around the city like a bunch of idiots."<p>

"Not that that'd be much of a difference from the way they act already." Kati piped up.

"Katie!" Mrs. Knight admonished, shushing her. Katie merely snickered, holding her hands over her mouth as Mrs. Knight turned back to Gustavo with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, please go ahead."

"As I was saying, you have to follow a schedule." Gustavo said and motioned a hand to Ronan. He leaned over and grabbed a stack of papers off of the end of the table and started to walk around, handing them out to each person. "This is your schedule while you're in New York, you have to be on time, or you'll make me look bad. When you have a day off, you can do whatever you want."

"And the day off is before your performance so you guys have time to rest." Kelly pointed out, repeating what she had said earlier. "But," she held up a finger.

"Why do I get the distinct feeling that I'm not going to like this 'but'?" Riley asked. Robert cleared his throat and glared at her and she moved her hands to her lap, seeming to shrink in on herself.

"The premise of the photo shoot that you guys are doing, the premise of your work together, besides the DarkElements being hired to help you guys get settled in the industry, is your bands' rivalries." Kelly said, clasping her hands together and holding them in front of her lap. "That's what the Photoshoot is for, in the Photoshoot you guys are going to be paired up with each other in a way we think works with the bands' personalities as well as doing individual shoots. Kendall with be paired with Riley-"Kendall looked over at Riley, who's upper lip curled slightly before she rested her chin in her hand. "Logan with Rhuben." Logan smiled over at her. She gave a slight nod back before looking over at her father and slightly lowering in her seat, looking away. "James with Patrick and Noah and Carlos with Sydney."

"Awesome!" Carlos cried excitedly. "We're going to rule!" He reached up to give Sydney a high-five, thought better of it, and then slowly reached his hand out for a fist-bump. Sydney smiled and eagerly bumped his fist with Carlos's.

"And since you're going to be paired with each other for the Photoshoot, we think that it would be a good idea if on your day off you-"

"What?!" Patrick and Noah said in unison, their eyes growing wide.

_Wow, way to make us feel even less welcome into your life. _Logan thought as he looked at the twin boys, who turned and looked at each other and then sat back in their seats at the same time. _That can't be just a coincidence. Something is definitely going on here._

Mrs. Knight started to say something, but Robert cut her off once more. "I don't' think that's a good idea," Robert interrupted calmly. "I'm not saying that I don't trust your son, Kacy" he said quickly, holding out a hand as he looked over at Kendall. Mrs. Knight nodded, allowing him to continue. "I just don't think that it's a good idea for teenagers to be off on their own while they're in the city. Besides, we have that 'no dating' rule and what if rumors start to go around."

"Whether or not they're on a date, which they won't be," Ronan said evenly, turning to his boss. "There's going to be rumors about them anyway." He shrugged. "There's already some starting to go around when it comes to whether or not BTR is using them for their fame and that doesn't seem to bother you."

"I have to agree with Ronan on this one," Mrs. Knight said with a nod, looking at everyone in the room. "We want what's best for our kids to succeed, so if it's publicity to get their rivalry _and_ their music out, I think it's a good idea."

Robert grunted and looked away. "Look," Gustavo stood up and pointed in Robert's face. "You were the one that suggested that they work with Big Time Rush, if you didn't want them to-"

"I don't want them to get in my business!" Robert snapped back, roughly pushing Gustavo away from him, causing Ronan to reach out and catch him before he fell. Robert scowled and stormed out of the room.

"Sorry about him," Sydney apologized, keeping his eyes downcast. "He's just stressed."

"Well, we're all stressed," Mrs. Knight replied patiently. She looked at her watch. "Tell you what, why don't you guys go get something to eat while the rest of us talk about what's going to go on with New York. Alright?"

She started for her purse, but Ronan reached out and held onto her wrist, stopping her. "It's on me," he offered and then dug into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out a leather wallet. He flipped through it and then grabbed a black credit card, leaning over and handing it to Rhuben. "I just need it back by tomorrow. Come back here when you're done and if you're dad's not here," he sighed. "I'll take you guys home.

"No problem. Thanks Ronan," Rhuben gave him a slight smile. "Come on."

_I guess there are __some__ perks of being in a band; _Logan couldn't help but let a feeling of excitement rush through him as he followed everyone out the door. _You get to travel places, meet fans, and you don't have to worry about paying for things if you don't have the money for it. _He looked over at Riley and Rhuben as they all walked out of Rocque Records and down the street. _And I get to hang out with my best friends again._

They ate dinner at a Polynesian restaurant called Trader Vic's talking about what they were most looking forward to about going to New York. The Jacksons had opened up a bit while there, telling the guys some of the best places to get some food and some of the places that they _had_ to go see while they were there. They even did their best to try and help the guys calm down about their performance; reminding them that they had, already, done their first concert, so this shouldn't be any different. Now they were going to see the kind of fans they had and from how far they would go just to see Big Time Rush. According to Patrick it's a "humbling experience". It wasn't until they finished, paid the bill, and stared to walk back to the PalmWoods that Logan realized that they were going to be in trouble.

"I forgot about the rule," Logan said, slightly panicked. "You can't be in the lobby after 9."

"So how do you think you're going to get to your apartment?" Patrick asked, scratching the back of his head. "Scale the wall?"

"No, they're just going to walk _right in_, doofus." Noah shot back sarcastically. Patrick stuck out his tongue and Noah stuck his out in reply before reaching out and grabbed Patrick in his arms, forcing his head down towards his chest.

"Ow, I give!" Patrick cried.

"Too easy." Noah replied.

The whole exchange caused Katie to giggle before she turned back to the others, tilting her head to the side. "What would you guys do without me?" She sighed. "You just need to get Bitters away from the front desk and then keep him preoccupied long enough to get in."

"But if we get caught, we'll get a strike." Logan reminded her. "And I don't remember how many we have until Bitters kicks us out."

"I thought Gustavo was paying for your apartment." Sydney said curiously. He continued when the boys agreed that he was right. "So Bitters can't kick you out, it's part of the contract. The only way you can leave is if Gustavo puts you in a new home or something. Bitters would be in violation of the 22nd code of-"

"You don't know Bitters." James interrupted.

"Then you just won't get caught," Riley said as they walked up to the PalmWoods. She stopped and peered inside the glass doors. The lobby was empty and Bitters was sitting at the front desk, watching something on a small, portable TV, eating popcorn. "What's the number to the PalmWoods?" she asked, pulling her phone from her pocket. Logan gave it to her and she quickly dialed it and put it on speaker before handing it over to Sydney.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Bitters asked as he picked up the phone.

To the others' amazement, tears started to pour down Sydney's face and he sniffed loudly. "I don't know what happened, but…"

"Spit it out, kid!" Bitters snapped.

"Do you drive a Chevy Impala?" Sydney asked, thinking quickly.

Inside, Bitters slowly sat up straight, looking suspicious. "Yeah, what about it."

"Well, some teenagers were messing around with your car, and they were carrying bats," Sydney said quickly, causing Katie to start laughing lightly. He waved a hand at her. "They started to smash your car, I told them to stop, but then they started to chase me and they hit me. I think they're back at your car now. My mom is very upset, she's saying that she's going to sue you and that you have to pay for my hospital bills and-"

"MY CAR!" Bitters screeched, tossing his phone to the ground and racing out the front of the PalmWoods. They all watched as Bitters ran towards the parking lot, shouting about teenagers and bats as he did so.

"And that, ladies and gentleman, is how you get things gone." Rhuben said as Sydney closed Riley's phone and handed it back to her. She reached out and rubbed Sydney's back as he stopped crying, rubbing the tears off of his cheeks. "Nice job, Syd."

"Thanks," Sydney said with a modest smile. "It's a gift."

"How'd you learn how to do that?" Katie asked. "'Cause I have this pleading face that's _really_ good, but I think if I threw some tears in there, it would be better."

"I can show you."

"Thanks for the help, guys." Carlos said sincerely. "I don't know what we would have done to get Bitters out of there." He slapped Kendall on the chest. "We would have gone with one of his plans and it probably would have backfired in our faces."

"It would have worked." Kendall defended himself.

"No, it wouldn't."

"Whatever," Rhuben held up a hand. "Bye." Kendall stopped them as they started to turn and walk back to Rocque Records to go home.

"Guys," Kendall let out a sigh. "We know that, for whatever reason you guys have, you don't want to work with us. But you've been hired by Gustavo; you don't really have a choice now. We want to be your friends, and since we're going to be spending a _lot_ of time together, we should work as a team." He thought for a moment. "And take the puck and score the win."

The Jacksons made faces and exchanged glances with each other. Rhuben moved a hand to her forehead, shielding her eyes as she lightly shook her head. Riley studied Kendall as crossed her arms over her chest.

"Whatever you say, Hockey-Head." She finally said.

…

..

.

"So how long do you think until we can 'move in'?" Riley used air-quotes around the words as she stood in the doorway. Hearing a siren, she looked over her shoulder before stepping further into the room.

Rhuben thought for a moment as she looked around the abandoned apartment. It would definitely fit the five of them comfortably when they needed it. Sure, it wasn't going to be as big as they house they were in now, but even they didn't need that much space. Not many people would come by with the signs all over the front door, and it didn't seem like many people even knew that it was there in the first place. A bit of cleaning up on the inside, leaving the bushes and trash on the outside so everyone thought no one was there…it would be a home away from home.

"I think we should wait until after we get back from New York." Rhuben finally said as she turned to face her sister. "We can slowly move some things, that way he won't notice anything unless we make it painfully obvious." Riley nodded. "I think we did a good job this time."

"Yeah, we did." Riley reached out and the two gave each other a high-five.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I kind of glimpsed over Rhu in the dance studio and Riley in the wardrobe department because it's not as important as the meeting and them sneaking back into the PalmWoods.

So, next chapter they're all going to NYC to do their interviews, photo shoot, and performances at Planet Hollywood. I'm getting closer to ending the first story-arc. It should be before 30 chapters that the first part ends, depending on how long the chapters are/how much time jumps. Thanks for reading you guys; I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	19. How To Give New York A Rush PART 1

**.:Chapter Nineteen – How to give New York a Rush PART 1:.**

_"We have time, there's no big rush." ~Jimi Hendrix_

* * *

><p>"How long is our flight to New York?" Carlos asked, bouncing up and down in his seat. "I can't wait until we get there! I can't wait to see Times Square and-"<p>

"It's going to be kind of late when we get there," Ronan reminded him as he stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankle. He gave Carlos a warm smile as the teenage boy visibly deflated at the news. "So you're not going to be able to see Times Square tonight." He turned to speak to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie all at once. "It's probably better if you guys go to sleep right as soon as we check into the hotel, just to be sure that you're rested and ready to go for the whirlwind of the day tomorrow."

He then turned to his clients, who looked like they weren't even paying attention to him. Robert noticed and sat up straight, clearing his throat harshly. Ronan gave Robert a look, which Robert dismissed, and then smiled at the Jacksons. "That goes for you guys too," he said. "I know you're used to running on little to no sleep because of going to and from Australia, but I want you all to be well rested too."

"No pro, Ronan." Riley and Rhuben replied with half-smiles.

Ronan smiled back and they went back to what they were doing…being bored. The group of them was at the airport, waiting for their flight to New York City that wasn't leaving until eight o'clock. After having taken the whole day to pack, they met at the airport two hours before their flight so they would be sure to get there on time and have everything done without running the risk of leaving someone behind or someone complaining about having to go to the bathroom. Big Time Rush were doing their own things to stay entertained, Logan was reading, James was alternating between studying facial poses for his pictures in his hand mirror between flipping through a magazine and asking Logan whether or not he would look good in something. Carlos and Kendall were both on their computers. The Jacksons were either just watching people that were walking by, or watching planes take off. Katie was playing a video game and seemed to be very into it, not caring when people turned her way or shushed her to stop making sound effects as she played.

"They seem to really respect you," Mrs. Knight said. At first, Ronan wasn't sure if she was talking to him, and looked at her, to be sure if she wasn't talking to herself. But when she gave him her full attention, he shrugged and nodded. "It's definitely something that Gustavo wouldn't be used to, while working with the boys." She added with a half smile.

"Well, that's what happens when you don't give respect." Ronan said, shrugging again. "To get respect, you have to give respect. I made sure that that happened the first day that I met my kids, because I wanted to succeed as a team, not just as a producer and their client."

"How _did_ you meet them anyway?" Mrs. Knight asked, crossing her arms over her chest, turning in her seat so she was facing him.

"We're talking about this story, again?" Gustavo grunted as he and Kelly walked over. "What is it, the eighteenth time that you've told it?" He waved an arm, nearly hitting Kelly in the face. "We're going to get some coffee so we can actually tolerate having to wait for this stupid plane to take off!" He rolled his eyes. "I _guess_ you can tell the story again while we get some."

Ronan made a face as Kelly rolled her eyes. "That's Gustavo's very rude way of asking if you guys want some coffee." She motioned behind her to Robert, who was sitting in a seat a ways away from the others, barking into a phone. "We asked Robert, but he just waved us away." She shrugged as Mrs. Knight and Ronan got to their feet. "I guess the guy is a bit more stressed than the rest of us."

"When is he not," Ronan replied as the four started to walk to a coffee stand. "Being the manager of a very famous band that has a hectic schedule back home in Australia and is trying to make it here can't be easy." He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. "This is probably the most calm that I've seen him in a while. Besides, he hates coffee."

"How do you think that they're going to do in the US?" Kelly asked Ronan.

"How do you think that Big Time Rush is going to do?" Ronan quickly turned the tables on her. He could always expect an honest answer out of her that was just Kelly.

How she could stand to be around Gustavo Rocque and be around his yelling and negativity for so long, no one was sure. But it must have worked, for the two of them had been working together on almost every single one of Gustavo's projects. If she didn't think that he was going to be able to make a hit, she probably would have been out of there by now.

"Touché." Kelly smiled, lightly hitting him on the arm.

"Excuse me," Mrs. Knight grabbed Ronan's attention again. "You were telling me how you met the Jacksons."

"Oh, right," Ronan nodded and then smiled as he thought back to that day. "I was 26 and I was taking a lunch break. This was a little bit after I first started Blazing Phoenix Records. Well, I was going through the mall, and then I saw that there was a small crowd around something. That wasn't that much of a surprise because there's always someone getting some sort of attention in LA like that. But I heard some singing and went over to see what was going on. I pushed my way through the crowd and was actually very shocked to see that it was my kids, because they were so young but were singing so well. After hearing them sing the song 'Don't Stop Believing' I knew that there was something about them that was different that people were going to like and I knew they were going to be my first clients. So I went over to Robert, introduced myself, and asked whether or not they were signed anywhere and the rest is history." Ronan shrugged modestly. "It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time."

"Just like with Kendall and the boys." Mrs. Knight said with a warm smile directed towards Gustavo and Kelly. Kelly returned the smile as Gustavo snorted loudly. "At least some of us feel that way." She added sharply.

"I think that this trip is really going to put both bands in a good place," Kelly said, answering Ronan's earlier question. "I mean, New York is one of the best places to go to get the music out there, and starting out with the teen magazines will definitely get them on the radar."

"But it can't all be fun and games." Gustavo reminded them. "We have work to do. This is so everyone can achieve the success that they deserve." He shook his head roughly.

"Gustavo," Kelly said gently. "These guys are going to do great, I can feel it."

She knew that Gustavo was worried about the boys just as much as he was worrying about his own job. The boys had already done their first concert and they already had their first CD out, but it wasn't selling as much as they had originally hoped. That was the reason behind the whole rivalry idea, if they got a band that was big enough to be considered rivals in the US market, and then BTR would get the attention that they deserve. Sure, some people would say that they were just using DE for their own personal gain, and that was partially true. But that was part of the game of the industry; you thought of different ways to be sure that your name was out there.

Kelly didn't think that it was a bad thing, especially since Ronan was a friend of hers and they had been working in the same vicinity for a while. They were helping each other at this point and while she knew that Gustavo also wouldn't admit this, she knew that he was grateful for Ronan's help, even if he was stuck having to deal with Robert as well.

"There's a difference before feeling it and it happening." Gustavo reminded her sharply.

"Ok," Ronan clasped his hands together. "You definitely need a coffee." He walked up to the counter. "Or a sedative." He added under his breath before giving the barista their order.

Mrs. Knight, hearing what he said, laughed lightly as she pulled her auburn hair over her ears. She looked around the airport as she waited for her coffee. Gustavo and Kelly were arguing quietly, like they normally did, and since she was so used to it, there was no entertainment in that. She turned back to where the others were sitting, waiting for their plane. Robert had put down his phone and was now standing at a window, his arms crossed over his chest, feet shoulder-length apart, looking more than ticked off. He must have noticed her looking at him, for he turned and gave her a warm smile.

"He likes you, you know." Kelly said, breaking into her thoughts.

"Oh please." Mrs. Knight laughed off the statement.

"I'm being serious," Kelly continued. "I've known him just as long as I've known Gustavo, or somewhere near that, all the years seem to blend together." She rolled her eyes slightly. "I know when that guy is interested in someone and he's interested in you."

"Do you…know anything about his dating habits? Has he had a girlfriend?" Mrs. Knight asked curiously.

"Not recently," Kelly shook her head. "But he's been so busy with his job, and it does take up a lot of time." She added, to which Mrs. Knight nodded to. "If I were you, though, I would be a bit cautious about it. I mean, just cause I don't know about his exes doesn't mean he doesn't have any."

"I wouldn't be interested anyway," Mrs. Knight shook her head. "Not with Kendall and Katie and my ex-husband and everything…" She paused. "Besides, aren't there some rules or something against it as we're working together, like with the bands?"

"We're adults; we can make our own decisions." Kelly reminded her. She turned to Ronan and smiled at him in thanks as she took the coffee that he offered. "Just keep that in mind."

"Keep what in mind?" Ronan asked as he turned and carefully handed Mrs. Knight her coffee.

"Nothing," Mrs. Knight replied with a smile as she took it and brought the cup to her lips, blowing on it lightly before taking a sip. "We should get back; our plane might be called soon." She looked up as a voice came over the intercom, announcing their flight.

"How'd you do that?" Gustavo asked as they started to walk back to their seats.

"Woman's intuition." Mrs. Knight replied with a smile and a light laugh. She walked back over to her seat and started to grab her bags. "Everyone be sure to have their tickets out when you go to get on the plane." She said to everyone. "That'll make everything move by that much quicker so we can get to the hotel faster."

"Getting a little tired, mom?" Katie asked teasingly. Kendall and Katie laughed as their mother gave her a wicked look and then rolled her eyes. Katie reached out a hand and Kendall high-fived her. She knew that she could get away with a joke like that while she really was that tired.

"Do you want me to sit next to you?" Logan asked as he moved over to Rhuben's side. She merely raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. Logan shifted his feet in the silence and then tilted his head. "You don't like flying." He explained quickly.

Rhuben's face softened lightly. "You remember." She said simply.

"How could I forget?" Logan gave a small smile. "You're my best friend."

Rhuben's face twitched and then went apathetic, like it usually did. He noticed that she, nor her siblings, seemed to show much emotion around them, as if they were afraid of how someone was going to react to it. He licked his lips as he, once again, waited for a reply. _I don't know why you think I'll run away, we already said that we're going to try and be your friends, so what is it exactly that you're afraid of?_

"Right," She nodded and took a step to move around him, pulling her carry-on bag up her shoulder. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm already sitting by Noah."

Logan watched her walk away and then turned to Riley, who was standing a few meters away from him. She was looking at him curiously and then reached out and grabbed her sister's arm as she started to pass her. The two spoke for a moment and then turned back to Logan, their eyes shifting, before turning to the front and starting to walk once more.

Logan looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Robert, turning back around when he noticed his hard stare.

"Hey, Logie, you ok?" Kendall asked, clasping him on the shoulder. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine," Logan replied. "Let's just get on the plane."

* * *

><p>"Please no more! Please daddy. Stop!"<p>

Sydney's plea fell on deaf ears. The tears of the crying child went unnoticed. He desperately wanted someone to hear, someone to rescue him from this torment, tell him it was all over, but no one heard and no one cared. It was the sad thing about their situation, he had realized years ago. While he was sure that people knew what was going on with them, there were some that didn't care or just didn't want to get involved. So they would act like nothing was happening and just went on with their lives. He was sure that that was going on this time, the walls of the hotel rooms couldn't be that thick. He was sure that the hotel was filled at this time of night.

Something on the flight or some phone call that Robert had gotten must have upset him. They all knew it. They knew as soon as his demeanor changed when they were getting on the plane. They knew that as soon as they got to the hotel, things were going to go badly for them once again. They were right. As soon as they got to the hotel room, Robert had put his bag to the ground, ripped off his jacket, and started to beat into his kids so quickly that they didn't have a chance to duck out of the way.

Riley and Rhuben, like always, had always been there for him, Patrick, and Noah. They always took their dad's wrath upon themselves, saying they were older so they could handle it. Robert didn't seem to care this time; he just continued to beat them in the stomach and chest before turning back to the boys once more. By the time that he started to tire, Riley and Rhuben had already started to fight back. They always waited for him to give a bit of an opening for them to get the upper hand. Usually, it caused him to back off, but this time it just made him hurt them even worse.

It only ended when Robert drew himself up to his full height that they knew that it was ending. But this time, he was going to do something a bit more drastic than usual. It had happened before, twice to be exact, that he had thrown them out onto the street. They were happy that this time it was just out of the hotel room.

"Get out!" Robert bellowed, grabbing Rhuben by her hair. She let out a shriek of pain as he started to drag her towards the door. Her hands flew up to his, scratching at him, trying to get him to let go. "Get out; I don't want to look at you!" He shoved Rhuben to the ground and opened the front door.

Sydney hurried over to Rhuben and flung his arms around her. Rhuben picked him up and quickly moved out of the hotel room, Riley, Patrick, and Noah moving after her.

"Where are we going to go?" Riley demanded, turning back to her foster father, glaring fiercely. "You don't think that people are going to questions why we're not in a room?"

Robert gave a low laugh and leaned forward, putting his face directly into hers. Riley's nose wrinkled and she moved a hand over her nose and mouth. Robert reached out and grabbed onto the back of her neck, causing her to wince in pain. "That's your problem, not mine." With that, he shoved her backwards. Patrick and Noah reached out and grabbed her before she fell to the ground.

The five of them winced as Robert slammed the door shut; the sound of the deadbolt being put into place shattered the silence. Sydney quietly started to cry, despite Rhuben wiping the tears from his face, trying to console him.

"C'mon," Noah moved forward and wrapped an arm around his baby brother's shoulders. "Let's find someplace to sleep." Sydney looked up at him, still wiping his face, and Noah bent down slightly, picking up his brother and holding him against his hip.

"Are you ok?" Patrick asked his sisters, his eyes shifting back and forth between the two of them. His right eye was almost completely closed.

"Fine," Rhuben replied, massaging the back of her head. "You?" She turned to Riley.

"Yep." Riley nodded and rolled her neck. "I will be as soon as this guy is gone." She rolled her neck once more before looking up and down the hallway. "Maybe the concierge can find us a place to stay. We'll just say that we got locked out and that our 'Dad' is asleep or something."

"Or something." Rhuben agreed.

* * *

><p>"Can we go down to get something to eat yet?" Carlos whined the next morning, his hands over his stomach. "I'm starving."<p>

"Mom said that we can go down as soon as she's ready to go." Kendall replied patiently.

"And you know that the two things you never want to do to my mom is wake her up when she's asleep and rush her when she's getting ready." Katie added seriously. She pulled her brown hair out of her face and then tied it up into a ponytail. "I think she even rivals the time that it takes for James to get ready, and he's even done before her." She added, jerking her thumb over to James, who was lounging on the couch, his laptop lying on his lap and lower stomach.

"Yeah, that is pretty weird." Logan added, his right eyebrows twitching slightly. "Maybe she got up late." He turned to Carlos, who let out another whine, and sighed loudly. "If you're that hungry Carlos, why don't you go down to the hotel's restaurant and wait for us there? That way you can start eating while we wait for Mama Knight to finish."

"Cool," Carlos immediately leapt to his feet. "Meet you guys down there!"

He hurried out of the hotel room and over to the elevator. On the ride down to the lobby, he couldn't help but lick his lips as he thought about the food that he was going to get that day. He was trying to decide between getting pancakes, waffles, or both as he walked out of the elevator and into the lobby. He stopped when he noticed someone slumped in a nearby chair. Curiosity getting the best of him, Carlos walked forward, his eyes on the chair. It wasn't until he stopped by it that he realized that it was Sydney that was curled up in the chair, snoring quietly. Carlos's eyes moved around to the other chairs, Patrick, Noah, and Rhuben were sleeping in the other three while Riley was sleeping on the floor, her arms crossed and her cheek resting against her arms.

Carlos took a step closer and noticed some slight bruising on the sides of their faces. Carlos reached out and lightly shook Sydney's shoulder. "Syd, wake up." He said quietly.

As he spoke, Rhuben suddenly sat up, causing Carlos to jump backwards, the movement causing the rest of the Jacksons to wake up. Sydney blinked slowly and looked up at Carlos for a moment, looking like he didn't recognize him, then his eyes widened before he lowered them. Sydney quickly got off of the chair before moving over to Noah, standing behind him. Riley and Rhuben looked at each other before they got to their feet, staring hard at Carlos.

"Did you guys sleep down here?" He asked with a laugh.

"No," Patrick yawned loudly, skillfully avoiding his gaze by looking at Carlos's forehead. "We were waiting for our Dad so we could eat, but…I guess we stayed up too late, watching movies." He rubbed the back of his neck." I guess we fell asleep."

"Oh, ok." Carlos smiled and nodded. But then he noticed Noah's shirt and then pointed. "Didn't you wear that shirt, yesterday?" He asked.

Noah looked down at the front of his own shirt, his eyes widening slightly. He looked over at Patrick, then at Riley and Rhuben, before looking over at Carlos again. His mouth quivered for a second and he opened his mouth to say something.

"Hey," Katie said as she, Kendall, Logan, James, and Mrs. Knight walked over to them. "What's up?" she asked the Jacksons.

"Good morning," Mrs. Knight added with a warm smile as she gazed at the five siblings, who seemed to relax a little. They were still on guard though; they knew that they weren't going to be out of the clear for a while. "How did you all sleep?"

"Fine." Sydney replied, moving his eyes over to Carlos before looking back at her. "Just fine."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **And the drama starts. This chapter was shorter than others on purpose. It's somewhat of a filler, but it's an important chapter as well. I hope that you guys liked it. I needed to show some more of the adults in this one, that's why you didn't see BTR as much. But you'll see a lot of everyone in the next chapter.

Also, I don't know if you guys know, but we have published a book and it is now on kindle and paperback on amazon. If you go to Amazon and type in 'Two Pair Quadruple' (or Two Pair Quadruplets) you'll find it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	20. How To Give New York A Rush PART 2

**.:Chapter Twenty – How to give New York a Rush PART 2:.**

_"We have time, there's no big rush." ~Jimi Hendrix**  
><strong>_

* * *

><p>Logan waited until everyone was knocked out for sleep, they had all made sure to go to bed early knowing that the photo shoots and interviews the next day was going to take their toll on them, before he pulled his laptop out from its case and booting it up. He lifted the blanket of his bed over his head, so the light wouldn't disturb the other guys in the room. Gustavo and Kelly had managed to get them a suite in the most expensive hotel in New York; it comfortably fit the four boys in one room and Mrs. Knight and Katie in the other.<p>

Logan waited for his laptop to boot up, impatiently drumming his fingers on the side of the computer. When the internet finally connected, he started to browse the internet, looking for any video, interview, or picture of the Jacksons from when they first started their band. It wasn't hard to find, one Google search and he got hit after hit of links that he could use. The first one he tried was on Wikipedia, it gave a brief background of when they started, the music they played; starting from pop then transitioning to rock, how many CDs they had out, their singles, what certification each CD had, their music videos, and the reception to each CD.

When he started to watch the videos, he purposefully watched ones from when they were first starting, to in the "middle" of their career, and then to their most recent ones. He could easily see a difference in their personalities when it came to the interview. At first, they were more open, willing to answer questions, even being silly to an extent, and then when it got to the more recent interviews, they were more serious, cordial, and the tiniest bit silly (it typically depended on the kind of host).

_If they went from one personality to another, what could have happened to cause them to change so much? _Logan thought to himself, moving his hand over his mouth. _I'm not going to stop until I figure out what it is._

* * *

><p>"Alright," Gustavo clapped his hands together loudly in front of the two bands, who stood before him, yawning and rubbing their eyes, waiting for the day to start. "To make this go by quicker, you're going to have a photographer from PopTiger, BopMe, and TeenThings all shooting you at once," he motioned to the back-drop behind him where three cameras were set up close together. "Then they'll choose the photos that they want to include in their spread later."<p>

"Over there," Kelly waved an arm to where there was a table set up with some phones as well as video cameras. "Is where you guys are going to be doing all of your interviews for the magazine, for their YouTube accounts, and for the phone interviews. You'll be doing those once the photo shoot is done and after you guys have eaten."

"So are we all taking pictures at the same time?" Carlos asked, raising a hand above his head. "Or individually?" He lowered it and then held his helmet in both hands, his eyes lighting up mischievously. "And if we're doing it separately, are we supposed to find ways to entertain ourselves?"

"No!" Gustavo and Kelly practically screamed in unison.

"Something tells me that these guys get in a lot of trouble." Patrick stage-whispered to Noah who smiled and nodded in reply.

"You don't know the half of it," Katie, who was standing near them, said as she rolled her eyes. "They can't seem to go _anywhere_ without causing so many problems and having to run away from someone or destroy something." She turned to her mother, who looked like she was trying not to laugh. "You figured they would have somehow winded up in jail by now."

"If you're the one that isn't taking the picture at the time, then you can either watch as someone else does theirs, do a quick interview, or just sit and stay quiet." Gustavo said sharply, looking each boy in the eye.

"We just want to be sure that everything moves along slowly today, boys." Kelly added. "It's not that we don't trust you."

"Are you sure that's the reason why?" Ronan asked with a slight laugh. "You have the boys looking like they're about to crap their pants." He turned to Kendall, Logan, Carlos and James. "Guys, relax, this is going to be fun. And if you have any questions, you can ask any of us," he motioned to himself, Kelly, Gustavo, and Mrs. Knight. "Or you can ask them," he motioned to the Jacksons who, besides Sydney, looked less than enthused to help them. (Both that or they weren't happy at the idea of having to take pictures and answer questions all day). "But we want this to be as enjoyable as possible."

"Ok, then who's going first?" James asked, suddenly filled with energy. "I've been practicing my smile all night long, I think I have it down to one that shows how vulnerable-yet-strong I can be." He then flashed his pearly-whites to show them.

"Considering the fact that you boys don't have any clothes to wear yet, the DarkElements is going first." Kelly said and then waved an arm over to Riley, who obediently stepped up to her side. Kelly placed a hand on her shoulder and Riley quickly took a step away, looking at her feet. The hood of the jacket that she was wearing was up so no one could see her face twitch at Kelly's touch. "She's going to be going over your preferences and sizes with you guys before you start taking pictures."

"What are you guys going to be doing while we're working on this?" Rhuben asked Ronan. Her face scrunched up a little. "And where's Dad?" she added.

"We're going to be sitting off to the side, working with the photographers as well as taking calls from the venue to make sure that things are set up correctly." Ronan replied, pulling his phone out of his pocket and waving it around to prove his point. "As for your father, I think he said he was going to get something to eat before he got here." He looked at his watch. "But since he's grown up here, he could be at a specific place across the city so he can talk to some people." He lifted his head to look at the Jacksons once more. "I wouldn't expect him here until the day is half over."

"Ok." Noah replied, a sense of relief washing over him. "That's fine." Ronan smiled and reached out, mussing Noah's hair. Instead of flinching like Logan, somewhat, expected, Noah's smiled widened and he allowed Ronan to do it. "Have a good day, guys."

Riley turned to her siblings. "Do you guys have all of your clothes and stuff ready to go?" She asked.

"Yep," Rhuben nodded. "We even have our shoes, belts, and hats all piled up over there," she turned and pointed to five racks that were sitting at the side of the room. "And, depending on who is taking their photo at the time, we'll figure out who's going to watch Syd."

"Hey," Sydney said indignantly. "I don't need watching."

"You do when you get bored." Patrick reminded him.

"So do you!"

"I'll watch him," Katie offered, taking a small step forward. "I mean, I don't really have anything to do today, anyway." She blushed a little as all eyes turned to her. "Besides watching all of you guys, I mean."

"You can't even take care of a goldfish." Kendall said incredulously.

"Shut up, Kendall." Katie shot back, out of the side of her mouth.

"That'd be a big help, actually." Patrick said with a nod. "But you have to be careful of when he gets bored. That brain that knows just about everything and boredom doesn't mix well. At all." He turned to Noah and Rhuben. "Alright, so which one of us is going first we need to get our make-up done…"

James smiled to himself as he watched the others walk away and then turned back to Riley. He couldn't believe that this was happening. Their first, really _big _photo shoot. _And _it was with a band that was big halfway around the world. This just meant that soon pictures of himself were going to be plastered all over Australian magazines and websites, and girl's ScuttleButters. Now he was going to get his clothes professionally picked for a photo shoot. And not just this one, it was going to be for every other photo shoot after this and every appearance as long as the Jacksons were working with them.

"Alright, so," Riley pushed the hood off of her head and turned to face the guys. "First thing that I really need are your phones." She held out her hands. The guys looked at each other before handing them over to her.

"Um, what do you need our phones for?" Kendall asked, watching as she held onto each one, moving her thumbs across the key-pad. When she finished with them, she handed each one back and then whipped her own phone out, doing the same thing, before putting it back in her pocket.

"Because, Hockey-Head, considering I'm not your stylist or whatever," Riley crossed her arms over her chest. "I basically need to know what you're wearing and what event you're going to wear it to. Your everyday clothes, I don't need to know about, and," she looked each of them up and down. "Frankly, I don't think I can help that. But," she held up an index finger. "If I'm not around or out of town, I still need to know what you plan on wearing, so I can approve it or tell you to change." She lowered her hand. "That why I needed your phone numbers."

_Sweet, I have a celebrity's number in my phone! The first of many! _James grinned as he looked at his phone, looking to see if her number was there. It was, along with her siblings' numbers. "Thanks, Beautiful."

"You're welcome." She said shortly. "Now, I got your notes from Dak about the clothes that you prefer to wear and that goes along with your style," she walked over to the four clothes racks that was labeled with each of their names. "I'll start with you, Logie-Bear." She ignored Kendall, James, and Carlos's laughter as well as Logan's flinch, before turning to face them. "I think that whole, nerdy-cute style that you have going on really fits your personality," she said honestly and then picked up three hangers. One held a white button down shirt, another held a black vest and tire, and another one held dark jeans. "So I think that capitalizing on that is the best way to go. So here, for your first look-"

"How many looks does each person have?" Carlos asked, tilting his head to the side. "I've seen some shows and stuff where they have, like, five different looks that they choose from."

"It depends on what the looks are for, really," Riley said patiently. "And having more changes mostly pertains to girls. But, say, you're doing a photo shoot like we are now, but not as big as this one; you need two or three because you're going to go to different locations to get the best picture and different clothes work with different areas."

"That actually sounds really wasteful." Carlos said, wrinkling his nose.

"You'd be surprised." Riley dead-panned and then turned back to Logan. "So, since your favorite color is black and it goes so well with your skin tone, I figured that having black and white as your top is the best way that you can go, if you do sweater vests, jackets, or regular vests, it's the better way for you to go. Of course with or without a tie." She flicked one. "And then for your dacks," she shook the jeans. "I thought that the classic black pants look along with it was just that, too classic, so I thought you'd be good with Diesel jeans."

"That's really cool." Logan said with a warm smile as he looked them over. "Thanks, Landy."

"You're welcome," she turned to Carlos and then waved an arm towards his rack of clothes. "Now, I see that you're usually the kind of person that is hyper and energetic and…crazy…all the time." She said in a way that the boys weren't sure whether or not it was good thing. "And you, typically, have clothes that show the same thing. So, for you, I thought that the best thing for you would be a purple polo shirt, a white baseball cap, and white shorts, with shoes that match." She then pushed on another hanger. "If not that, then maybe a sports t-shirt and jean shorts."

"No, this is perfect." Carlos declared as he grabbed and held onto the clothes rack, pressing his cheek against the cold metal. Riley gave him an odd look as Kendall laughed and reached out, patting him on the back. "Thank you so much! I don't think that we would have been able to get clothes as good as this without you around!"

Riley's proud smile faltered slightly before it slowly disappeared completely. "What do you mean by that?" She asked slowly, her tone held a dangerous edge. "I mean, apart from the fact that your old stylists are just plain _bad_." She shook her head at the memory of hearing some of their first ideas. "Red, White, and Boy?"

"I mean," Carlos was still hugging the metal frame. "You're a girl." He stated. Logan winced. "Aren't clothes the only thing you think about?"

A look of offense slowly slid over Riley's face as her face turned as red as her strand of hair that was dyed. She was more than miffed. "Let me get this straight, _Carlos_," She practically growled. "Just because I'm a _girl, _you think that all I care about is what clothes I wear and that my biggest concern is looking cute?"

Carlos blinked once, seeming to not notice the tension that filled the air. "…It's not?"

"NO!" Riley exploded, causing the four boys to wince. "It's not, you boofheaded twit! Since you don't know me that well, do _me_, and Rhu for that matter, a favor and don't generalize!"

"He just meant that he thinks that you have such great style, it's hard to believe that you don't spend all your time thinking about it." Logan jumped in, trying to appease the situation. He waited as Riley slowly calmed down before she turned to James.

"Alright, Handsome," she said through gritted teeth. "For you, you seem to want to be the center of attention as much as possible, so with that, I feel that you would have more of a classy style." She turned to his clothes rack. "For you I noticed that v-necks seem to be your thing, and they go well with your body type, so I thought that pairing that with a leather jacket and jeans is the way to go. That way it can be casual but classy at the same time, and you're not limited with the pants that you want to wear with it."

"Sweet." James grinned. "You got my style down perfectly and yes," he flexed his muscles so his biceps bulged. "I _do_ have the body type for it."

Riley took a large step back. "Ok then," she said, rolling her eyes before turning to Kendall. "And for you, Kendork-"

"Kendork?" he repeated, raising an eye.

"Your name easily created that unfortunate nickname," she said turning back to the clothes. "You seem to already have a style that you don't want to change much," she explained. "So I didn't have much work to do on you. And while green is your favorite color, black looks better on you, so you have a dark-gray t-shirt, a black hoodie-vest, black jeans, and a black fedora." She said and then pushed his rack of clothes closer to him. "You can easily switch out the vest with a jacket or a plaid shirt if you really want, or switch out the t-shirt with any color you want. But for this photo shoot, having mostly black is better."

"Cool, thanks." Kendall smiled. He looked up as he heard the sound of camera shutters going off. He blinked rapidly as flashes went off and he held a hand over his face, shielding himself from the glare. He watched as Patrick got his pictures taken.

"So what do we do while we wait?" James asked, keeping his eyes on Noah as he got his pictures taken.

"Just sit back and enjoy the peace." Riley said.

"What do you mean?" Kendall's eyebrows furrowed together as he turned to look at the raven-haired girl. She let out a short breath and then turned to face him. Logan and Carlos leaned over to listen to what she had to say as well.

"This is probably going to be the last bit of peace and quiet that you're going to have for a while. So you should get used to it. Things are going to move at a fast pace now, probably a lot quicker than you're going to be used to. So you're going to have to be able to keep up."

* * *

><p>Robert ran a hand over his face as he walked into the large room that the interviews and photo shoots were being taken in and spotted a woman in a business suit standing off to the side, writing on a notepad, watching as the Jacksons did their interviews with BopMe.<p>

"Rob," Robert's teeth gritted together before he forced a smile, turning to greet Gustavo, Kelly, Ronan, and Mrs. Knight as they headed his way. At the sound of Gustavo calling his name, the woman looked up, met Robert's eye, and walked over as well. "You're late, where have you been?"

"None of your business!" Robert snapped, under his breath, pushing by Gustavo. Ronan reached out and grabbed onto Robert's arm, pulling him a few paces away, holding a hand up to the woman that was talking towards them. She stopped in her tracks, nodded, and busied herself with her phone. "Get your hands off of me, McGuire." Robert pulled his arm out of Ronan's grasp.

"Robert, you're late." Ronan said evenly, not wanting to upset him as he knew that Gustavo would just by talking to him. "The photographers were wondering where you were, as they had questions about whether or not-"

"I'm sure you could handle it just fine!" Robert spat.

Ronan coughed and waved a hand in front of his face as he got a whiff of Robert's breath. The smell of alcohol was unmistakable. How anyone could drink that early in the day, he wasn't sure. But he knew that something must have been bothering him if he drank that early in the day and it smelled like he was wearing alcohol cologne.

"Are you drunk?" Ronan asked in a whisper.

"Would it bother you if I was?"

"You know that the kids don't-"

"Hell, why do any of them matter anyway?" Robert rolled his eyes. "It's no secret that they all like you better than they like me. So what's the deal? You answered the questions that needed to be answered, you watched them for me, and I got things done. They make me money, that's all that I need. Thanks for your concern," he slapped a hand onto Ronan's shoulder and pushed him away, his eyes trained on the woman that was still waiting to speak with him. "But no thanks." He walked over to her and stuck out his hand. "Linda, it's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too, Robert." Linda Walker said, firmly shaking his hand. She pulled up her briefcase, flashing the words 'foster care social worker' on it and opened it, pulling out a small calendar. "Just do a quick check." She waved the calendar and then put it back into the briefcase. "You mentioned that they had interviews and things today, so I figured that if I came in and talked to them, it would be the perfect time." She flashed Robert a smile. "I hope I'm not intruding."

"No, you're fine." Robert replied warmly.

Linda's smile faded a little as she leaned forward, sniffing. "Do I smell alcohol?"

"Yes, I just used some mouthwash," Robert quickly turned her attention to Gustavo, Kelly, and Mrs. Knight. "These are my colleagues. Would you like to meet them?"

"No, actually," Linda stopped. "I'd like to talk to your kids, please." Robert nodded and walked over to Riley and Rhuben, who were taking a break from their pictures. Robert growled under his breath before turning back to his colleagues.

"Who's that, Robert?" Kelly asked, tilting her head to the side. "I don't think I've seen her around before."

"Social worker," Robert grunted in reply. "She's been working with us since I took _my kids_," he looked over at Ronan before turning back. "In with me. Apparently she thinks that she can come in and does a surprise check whenever she wants."

"It's part of her job description," Ronan replied in a slightly challenging tone. "She can do it if she wants. It's not like you have anything to hide."

Robert sucked in a sharp breath through his nose as he turned to Ronan, who raised his eyebrows in reply. Robert plastered a peaceful smile on his face and shook his head before moving to walk by Ronan. "Watch it," he murmured to the music producer as he passed him. "I can have you out of this job sooner than you think."

…

..

.

"Hey guys," Dak greeted as he and Lizzie walked over to the two bands as they ate lunch. He pulled out a chair towards the end of the table and sat down as Lizzie grabbed one from the corner of the room and pulled it over, sticking her tongue out at Dak as she did so. "How's the photo shoot going?"

"It's really tiring," James replied as he lightly picked at the sandwich that was on his plate. "I didn't think that photo shoots could drain you so easily." He rolled his eyes. "Especially since the last one we did was for only one picture and we were just trying to make it a good one."

"Trust me," Dak held up a hand. "I remember." He flashed Katie a smile, who blushed and looked at her lap. Dak noticed Kendall's slight glare towards him and laughed shaking his head lightly, letting him know that he didn't have to worry. It wasn't until Kendall relaxed than he moved on. "So," Dak turned to Rhuben, who crossed her arms over her chest. "I have a couple of hours of free time after my audition today and before your show tomorrow. Do you want to-"

"No," Rhuben swiftly interrupted.

Dak, though, didn't let that falter him, as he smiled warmly. "You didn't even let me finish my question." He pointed out. "How did you know what I was going to ask?"

"You ask the same thing each and every time I see you," She shrugged carelessly. "At this point, I _think_ that I know what you're going to say." She brought her knees up to her chest, picking up a french-fry and popping it onto her mouth. "Give me more credit than that, DZ."

"So what number is that?" Dak asked with a laugh, turning to Riley.

"At this point, D, I think it would be over 200," She shrugged. "I lost count after the first 20." She then laughed along with Patrick and held out her fist, allowing him to bump it with his.

"What's your audition for, Dak?" Carlos asked, changing the subject. He took a sip of his soda and burped loudly, exchanging a high-five with James as Logan rolled his eyes in disgust.

"Don't know," Dak shrugged himself now, lightly kicking at the ground. "Mom and Dad heard about it, it's being run by a friend of theirs and they think that I should try out for it. "That's all that I'm aware of. I'm, somewhat, on a break between shows for Next To Normal, and they think that it's a good idea if I try to 'stay relevant'."

"No need to sound bitter about it," Logan noted.

"If you knew his parents, you'd understand why he sounds bitter." Noah defended him.

"Yeah, our parents aren't the brightest in the world," Lizzie spoke up. "They're so wrapped up in their work sometimes that you have to practically start a fire just to get them to stop working." She laughed. "I remember this one time that Dak and I got away with having a water war in the house because mom was on this casting deadline on the phone all day."

"Sounds awesome!" Katie declared, laughing as well. "Ugh, I wish Kendall and I could do something like that, but mom always seems to know what we were going to do before we were going to do it."

"That's sort of the point of having a mom." Sydney reminded her. "But try having two older sisters," he added with a teasing lift to his voice. "Especially when one will want to join in, but the other will think it's a bad idea." He grinned. "She'll go along with it eventually, but we'll still have to hear why it's a bad idea." He laughed as Riley gave him a warning look over her root beer float.

"But your sister are cool, so that's fine," Lizzie added.

"Thanks Lil' Bit." Riley said and then stuck her tongue out at Sydney, who stuck his out in reply.

Logan laughed along with the others, smiling when he noticed that the Jacksons were laughing as well. _I guess there are some times where they're not as open to their emotions as other times. I'm glad that they're at least trying to be a bit open now. I don't care how long it'll take; I hope we can get back to the friendship that we used to have._

"You're welcome," Lizzie agreed. "So, I heard that you guys are hockey players." She said to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James as she rested her elbows on the table and laced her fingers. She batted her eyelashes. "I'm sure you guys are very good."

"Don't get him started." Patrick dead-panned as Kendall opened his mouth to speak. "All he talks about is taking the puck up and down the field."

Noah made a face. "You're talking about _field_ hockey." He corrected his twin. "Kendall obsesses over _ice _hockey."

"What's the difference?"

"…the _ice_. And the fact that only girls play field hockey"

"Oh."

Lizzie and Dak laughed. Noah laughed quietly as he reached out and patted Patrick on the back, who looked a little confused. Riley, Rhuben, and Sydney smiled a little, giving Patrick an encouraging look, causing him to smile as well.

"So," Lizzie turned to Katie. "Are we still hanging out tomorrow?" She leaned towards the young brunette girl. "Cause I can show you everything that New York has to offer. The food and the performers." She snapped her finger. "_And_ you have to see the stores! There's a store for just about everything."

"If you're going to go, I suggest you wear earplugs." Dak said to Lizzie. He looked up as there was a slight yell and everyone watched as Robert and Linda continued to speak with each other. Robert looked annoyed and Linda looked calm, cool, and collected as she continued to speak with him. "I'm guessing your Dad doesn't like to be interviewed." He said, turning to the Jacksons.

"Yeah," Riley agreed with a sigh. "Something like that."

"We're ready for another round of pictures!" A photographer called, holding up her camera and waving it over her head.

"Looks like you guys have to get back to work," Dak said as he and Lizzie got up from their seats. "We'll leave you guys to it then."

"See you tomorrow, Katie." Lizzie said brightly, giving a big wave to the other girl. She then hooked her arm with Dak's and walked out of the building, pulling Dak along with her as he walked a few steps slower than she was.

The photographers set up Big Time Rush and the DarkElements so they were standing in a group together, alternating one from each band, to emphasize on the fact that they were in the rivalry together. They took a couple of pictures together and then split up into their individual shots.

For Kendall and Riley, they had them stand back to back with each other and had Riley cross her arms over her chest, and have Kendall's hands in his pockets. For a few of the pictures, they were instructed to tilt their heads (up for Riley and down for Kendall) so they were looking at each other. Another they took was of Kendall sitting on a stool and Riley leaning over him, resting her elbows on his shoulder, her chin in her hands and smirking at the camera as Kendall smiled.

For James, Patrick, and Noah they had Patrick and Noah standing on either side of James as he stood in the center. James had his arms cross over his chest as Patrick and Noah leaned on him with their elbows, looking bored (or 'badass' as Patrick called it). They also took some other pictures of the three of them sitting on a couch; Patrick on the left arm rest, holding onto a bass guitar, James on the top, holding onto a microphone, and Noah on the right cushion, holding onto drumsticks.

For Logan and Rhuben, they had the two of them sitting on the floor with their backs together, legs stretched out. Rhuben held her right cheek against her palm, her elbow resting on her brought up knee, causing her hair to fall across her face. Logan had his arms loosely wrapped around his drawn up knees. After taking a few shots like that, they had the two of them in dance poses, having to keep their balance the best they could on those where they were on the tips of their toes.

For Sydney and Carlos, theirs were the ones that were more energetic. Thanks to Sydney's pleading and Carlos's excitement for it, they were able to do a few jumping shots off of a trampoline. (Though Noah said that Sydney only wanted to do it to show off his flipping skills). For others they would do random poses that caused the photographers and journalists for the magazines to laugh hard. The others laughed as well.

Finally, they got pictures taken of them holding onto and reading the three magazines, to use for promotion on their ScuttleButter accounts.

"And that's a wrap!" The photographer from TeenThings declared before the cameras started to get taken apart.

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE SHOW'S OVER!" Gustavo said loudly, waving his arms in the air. His yelling caused the camera crew and journalists to jump and move as fast as they could to clear everything up.

"We got done a bit earlier than expected," Kelly said as she looked at her watch. "So you guys have some free time before we go to dinner. But you have to be in bed early again tonight, the show is tomorrow."

"Awesome!" Katie cried. She turned to Patrick and Noah. "Do you guys want to go see Times Square or something?" She frowned when Patrick looked at his father out of the corner of his eye. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Patrick shook his head. "Just…our Dad already had some things planned for us that we have to do, but, how about we come along with you and Lizzie to hang out before the show tomorrow." He suggested after a minute. "I'm sure we have some time then."

"It'll be fun." Noah added.

"That sounds good." Katie agreed, a little disappointed.

"Cool," Patrick reached out a hand, pulling it from his pocket, and opened Katie's writing something on her palm. "That's my number and that's Noah's, just let us know when you're ready to go tomorrow." He put the phone back in his pocket and walked over to his father, who was waiting with his sisters and baby brother, who were talking to Linda.

"Bye." Katie waved before hurrying over to her brother, a big smile on her face.

* * *

><p>Dak pulled open the door to the building that the casting was going to be in and stepped inside. After registering with the secretary he went to go take a seat in the crowded room. He made a face once he realized how many people were there, subsequently leaving him no space to sit down. His eyes scanned the room before he decided to just slide along the wall to an empty spot and just sit on the floor. He pulled a book out of his backpack and started to read. It wasn't because he thought that he was going to get the part in the commercial, it was that he <em>didn't<em> want to get the part.

Having his parents be casting agents, they never really paid that close attention to him and his sister and what they wanted and didn't want to do. It took them almost a year before they listened to Lizzie and stuck her in dance classes after Rhuben had done a dance expo at her public school. (They had been in LA for a short period of time when a local public school asked them to go and talk about what it was like being in a band, Rhuben showed them choreography, Riley showed them about playing instruments, Patrick and Noah showed them how to write songs, and Sydney talked about being the kids' age and being in the public eye). It took them much longer to realize that Dak never wanted to do musical TV movies, even though he did have fun doing Creatures of the Net and their sequels, he was embarrassed anytime someone brought t up. He always wanted to do musical theatre and when he got his first part on Hairspray on Broadway, they finally understood that that's what he wanted to do. Currently he was working on the show Next To Normal, but of course, his parents still wanted him to do some other TV things, just so their name could get out there.

Lizzie always joked around, saying that none of it would have happened if they never met the Jacksons, under Ronan's suggestion. Dak had met them when he was 15 and Riley and Rhuben were 14. Robert had just taken the Jacksons to LA to start working there, and Ronan wanted them to have some help, so he enlisted Dak to do so. He was a little surprised to know that he was the first friend that they made in LA (apart from Ronan) but then quickly realized that it was because they were secretive and made friends slowly, just so they were sure that the friend they chose was one they wanted. He became their friend pretty fast and continued to help them the best he could, in return, they went to the opening of every one of his plays, musical tours with the cast, or movie premier (if he gets a part) no matter the date or if it conflicts with their schedule.

If his parents noticed that he 'coincidentally' wasn't getting the parts that they wanted him to get, they didn't acknowledge it. And if they weren't going to bring it up first, he wasn't going to mention it at all.

Dak looked up as the door opened again and a teenage boy that seemed to be about his age walked into the casting area. He went over to the receptionist and gave his name before looking around, making a similar face that Dak made when he noticed that there wasn't a seat left for him to take.

Dak raised a hand and motioned the guy over. He noticed, gave a slight nod, and walked over, shifting his backpack on his back. "This audition got more of a response than I thought." The guy said as he sat down.

"Tell me about it," Dak commented, shaking his head. "I'm thinking of just ducking out, no one would notice anyway."

"Something tells me you're right." The guy agreed with a laugh. "I wonder if I should just leave too, but I also need the job. Anything is better than my current one." He added as a side-thought.

"What are you working on now?" Dak asked curiously. "Print? Commercial? Free-Lance?" His eyes narrowed each time the guy shook his head at each guess. "Are you on a TV show or something?" The other guy sighed.

"Yeah," he replied slowly. "But it's not that great of a show. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but at the same time," he sucked in a sharp breath. "It's kind of embarrassing."

"Trust me, I know the feeling," Dak agreed with a laugh. He rested his book on his lap, stretching out his legs. Maybe this wouldn't be a boring audition after all. He was so used to people just sitting by themselves, drilling lines into their heads that it got so monotonous. Now, at least, there was someone that was on the same page that he was. "Would I know what show you're on?"

"Maybe," the guy replied shortly. "But at this point, I would rather just sit in my content about not having to think about it right now than tell you."

"That's alright, man, I understand." Dak laughed. "I'm Dak," He leaned over and reached out his hand for a shake. "Dak Zevon."

"I know who you are," the guy replied, with a short smile. He reached out and grabbed onto Dak's hand firmly. "I'm WayneWayne."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Eh, this chapter didn't really come out the way I wanted it to either.

I'm trying to show that Dak is everyone's friend, even though he's more of a friend to the Jacksons (As he is slowly moving onto doing Broadway and Off-Broadway stuff). Still working on showing an equal amount of everyone, somehow, the adults keep showing up less than I want them to. Don't know if you saw my tweet, but as soon as I'm done with the first story arc, I'm gonna take a short break, and then start on the second one.

Also, this story may seem like it focuses a lot on Logan, but that's only because, at the moment, I'm focusing on him trying to find out what's going on so badly. You'll see more of Rhuben helping the guys with their dancing in the next chapter as this one showed Riley helping the guys with their clothes. You'll also see more of Patrick, Noah, and Sydney in the next chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	21. How To Give New York A Rush PART 3

**.:Chapter Twenty-One – How to give New York a Rush PART 3:.**

_"We have time, there's no big rush." ~Jimi Hendrix_

* * *

><p>"We have, like, all day to do whatever we want and we're in New York," Kendall said as he pulled back the curtain in the sitting area of the guys' suite. He leaned against the windowsill as he looked down on the streets, watching people walk by. "What do you guys want to do?"<p>

"I can tell you one thing you _don't_ want to do," James spoke up. "You don't want to go and try and watch the Jacksons rehearse." He let out a low whistle as he rubbed the back of his neck. He explained as Carlos, Logan, and Kendall turned to him, all having expressions of confusion on their faces. "I went to go watch them rehearse for the show tonight, since I wanted to get some pointers on performing. But their Dad basically blocked me from the door saying that I would be nothing but a distraction to them and that none of us were allowed in."

"Their Dad is pretty intimidating." Carlos agreed, tugging at the laces of his shoes. "It's no wonder that Gustavo doesn't like him, I wouldn't want to be around him much either."

"Thank god we have a choice." Logan added. "I don't know, I just think that if you're a manager that's _that_ invested in their career, to the point that you won't let them have any visitors, something's wrong with them." He added and then shrugged before scratching his neck, changing the subject. "Where are Mama Knight and Katie?"

"Out shopping or something, I'd bet." Kendall replied with a shrug. "Or they went sight-seeing." He turned from the window. "Come on, guys, there has to be _something_ that we can do." James smiled as a mischievous smile slid onto Kendall's face.

"This isn't the PalmWoods, dude, I think we could actually get kicked out if you try and do something with the manager of this hotel." James reminded him. "Plus, Gustavo and Kelly would kill us if we get bad press that way. But," he seemed to mull it over. "Any news is good news, so that may work to our advantage."

"Yeah, and then we'd be kicked off of Rocque records a few months after we released our first CD," Carlos snorted. "'Cause that's such a good idea. I don't know about you guys, but I actually _like_ to sing and dance for people."

"Then become a Chippendale."

The four boys turned and noticed Riley and Rhuben standing in the doorway of the hotel room. It was silent for a moment; Rhuben shuffled her feet as she looked around the suite. Riley scratched the side of her neck before lifting her hand in what was supposed to be a greeting.

"The door was open." She said in explanation.

"It's alright," Kendall finally said. "Come on in.

"Actually, we're here to see Logan." Rhuben replied and then turned her gaze to the smart boy. "It's Friday and since we were never able to hang out the past few times that you had asked, we were wondering," she motioned between herself and her twin. "If you had time to take that rain-check."

For a second, Logan wasn't sure what she was talking about. But then he flashed back to the first time that they had dinner over at the guys' apartment when he asked if they wanted to hang out. They had something to do and couldn't do it. The three other times they had been invited for dinner at apartment 2J they said the same thing. They had something to do and they needed to take a rain-check. But now, they had time to hang out, and he was going to jump at the chance, so he could become their friend again. So things could go back to normal.

"Yeah, I have the time." Logan smiled, but then looked confused. "I thought that you were hanging out with Dak today."

Riley laughed quietly as Rhuben's face went blank. "That wasn't going to happen." Riley said after a minute. "Anyway, let's go, we don't have a lot of time before we have to get to sound check and everything." She looked over at James, Carlos, and Logan. "We'll see you guys later." She said before disappearing from the doorway, Rhuben following them.

"So where are we going to go first?" Logan asked as he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. "I don't think it would matter, I'm sure that the stores are going to be really expensive." He stopped short, almost crashing into Rhuben, who had stopped walking. "What? What's wrong?"

Rhuben let out a quiet breath through her nose before lightly turning her head to look at her sister. Riley looked back at her out of the corner of her eye, looked at the ceiling, and then looked back at her once more. Rhuben did the same movement with her eyes before reaching her hand into her back pocket. She pulled her wallet out of her pocket and then flipped it open before pulling out thin card. She put her wallet back in her pocket and held the card in her hand for a moment before turning around and handing it out to Logan. Logan reached forward and took it; he raised the card up to his face and recognized it as his debit card.

"We found it on the way to your room." Rhuben muttered. "You might want to check to see if it's been used." She tilted her head back. "We're just going to walk around, catch up, things like that. I mean, since we haven't seen each other in eight years."

"I can't believe it's been that long." Logan agreed. "I remember when we used to get in trouble all the time. If I remember correctly, it was always your fault." He added, pointing to Riley.

She merely shrugged. "Old habits are hard to break." She replied.

The three left the hotel and started to aimlessly wander around the next few blocks. Logan dragged them into FAO Schwarz, wanting to check out some of the science experiments and science kits that they had there, but Riley and Rhuben opted to play on the giant piano, very loudly, until he went over to mess with it as well. They then went to an ice-cream parlor and Logan listened for a few moments as Riley and Rhuben quietly argued over which flavor to get, before he finally offered just to get a Neapolitan so they could each get one flavor for one price.

As they continued to hang out, Logan watched as the twin girls loosened up a little bit. They even started to laugh at some of the stories that Logan had told them about when he had first gotten to Minnesota. Of course, as the stories were about the things that he had gotten himself into, they were laughing at him, but it was nice to see them acting differently.

_They're starting to act like the friends that I remember. _Logan smiled to himself as they stopped at a sunglasses stand and started to try on a few pairs. _I'm glad they're having fun. _He laughed as Rhuben picked up a large pair of sunglasses and put it over her eyes before giving an exaggerated modeling pose. Riley pulled her phone from her pocket and held her arm out to take a picture of it when a teenage girl, about their age, walked by them, bumping into Riley, almost causing her to drop her phone. The girl's purse fell to the ground.

"Watch where you're going!" The girl snapped, grabbing her purse off the ground.

"Sorry, but _you _ran into me, mate" Riley snapped back, immediately switching to her Australian accent. "So why don't _you _watch where _you're_ going?"

"Obviously you're not from around here," the girl continued, sticking her nose up in the air.

"What gave you that idea?" Rhuben asked, removing the sunglasses from her face, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"'Cause if you were, you'd know who to mess with and who not to mess with." She looked the two girls up and down. "Yeah, you're definitely not from around here," she sneered, taking in their clothes. "'Cause even the dogs know how to dress better than you." She turned on her heel and started to clack away.

Rhuben's lower jaw moved to the side, and she let out a light laugh before a slightly perturbed look slid onto her face. "I'm gonna kill her." She said as she started to move forward.

"Not if I get to her first." Riley agreed.

"Stop," Logan reached out and grabbed onto their arms, holding them still. "I don't think it's a good idea if you do that, you know, considering the fact that news travels fast. If they get a word of this, you'll probably be in trouble." He slowly let go of their arms, not sure if they were going to listen to him.

"Aww," Riley smirked as she lightly draped an arm around her twin's shoulders. "Isn't that cute, Rhubes? He thought that we were actually going to hurt her."

"That's _so _funny." Rhuben added, slowly smiling. It dropped after a second. "That's the problem with the media nowadays." She looked over at Riley and the two of them spoke in unison.

"It makes you look like something you're not."

"What?" Logan's face screwed up in confusion.

"Listen," Rhuben licked her lips. "We would never intentionally hurt someone over something like that. But you thought we would, because of our appearance and the way that we're portrayed in the media. Am I right?" Logan looked down at his feet. Rhuben's face softened a little. "Don't worry about it, you're not the first person that's ever done that."

"And you're not going to be the last." Riley chimed in with Rhuben, so they spoke at the same time. Rhuben looked over at Riley and nodded. The two looked at each other. "Stop that!" They rolled their eyes before turning back to Logan.

Riley let out a sigh, running her hands through her hair. "We know that you want to be our friend again," she said slowly. "And…well," she crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at her feet. "We want that too, but…we don't really know how to be a friend."

"Because of your job?" Logan guessed.

"Exactly." Riley replied quickly, willing herself not to look at Rhuben for her reaction. "We were on tour all year last year, and before then, we had done nothing but work on our albums, do promotions, press junkets, appearances, and tour. Basically we haven't had any time to even try and become friends with anyone. It's a miracle that we've kept the ones that we have back home. I don't see how they can put up with us."

"Well," Logan beamed. "You don't have to worry about that anymore." His smiled widened when Riley and Rhuben looked at each other and then gave tiny smiles back in reply. He moved forward and gave the two of them a hug, glad that they didn't immediately try to pull away as they had done before.

Unfortunately, he missed the look of doubt that flashed through their eyes.

* * *

><p>Katie was walking back to the hotel with her mother when Lizzie, out of nowhere, ran up to her and grabbed her arms, bouncing up and down. Patrick and Noah casually strolled up after her, amused by Lizzie's constant excitement.<p>

"Hey, girl, are you ready to go?" Lizzie asked enthusiastically.

"Go where?" Katie asked, looking at Lizzie as if she were crazy, silently willing her to stop swinging her arms up and down.

"Sightseeing, shopping, everywhere!" Lizzie threw her hands into the air, her blonde hair flying around her face. "The world is our oyster!"

Katie turned and looked at her mother, suddenly having a flashback of the girl at the PalmWoods, Molly, who had been about as hyperactive as Lizzie was, but in a more sweet way. It turned out that Molly was a con-artist that was trying to pass herself off as a little girl in Hollywood to get some acting jobs; maybe this girl was a deranged as that one was. Mrs. Knight noticed Katie's horrified look and laughed as she pulled her purse up her shoulder.

"Oh Katie, relax." She said, placing a hand on her daughter's head.

"She doesn't bite, anyway." Patrick added with a warm smile as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"You need to have some more girlfriends anyway." Mrs. Knight lightly pushed her daughter towards Lizzie, Patrick and Noah. "I have to meet up with Ronan, Gustavo, Kelly, and Robert to go over some last minute stuff for the show tonight, anyway. I'll meet you all back at Planet Hollywood."

"Cheerio." Noah said with a wave.

"Bye."

Katie moved her mouth to the side as she watched her mother walk away. She turned back to Lizzie, Patrick, and Noah, not sure what to say. It didn't matter though; Lizzie moved to her side, looped her arm through hers, and started off down the sidewalk.

"So, I say that we should start at Central Park." Lizzie said, not giving anyone much of a choice. "Then we can go see Times Square."

"Do you think we'll have time to do all of that?" Noah asked, moving his hair from his face. "And get back in time for our sound check and everything?"

"If we keep walking, we should be able to." Lizzie replied.

"Is she always this-"

"Crazy? Hyper?" Patrick guessed, sticking out his tongue at Lizzie as she turned and tried to take a swipe at him. He took a large step back out of her reach. "Yeah, but that's what's cool about her. She can be girly when she wants and she can be a tomboy when she wants, so it's an even balance. It's cool." He looked at his watch. "I vote that the first place we go to is the NBA store."

"If the only thing that's in the NBA store is basketball stuff, I'll have to pass." Katie said after a second of thought. "It's New York; we need to have some fun while we're out here." She used her free hand and lightly tapped her chin as she thought about it. "Mmm, what could we do?" Her eyes lit up. "Oh! I know we could play some pranks on the people in Central Park." She suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Lizzie agreed with a grin.

Katie was shocked for a moment. Most of the time, her friends back home thought that she was immature for wanting to play pranks or make money instead of go shopping or watch some sports teams play some sort of game. She could care less about that kind of stuff, cause there was always time for it. But there's wasn't always a lot of time to make some mischief or plan a way to make some money. But it was like Patrick just said, Lizzie wasn't a normal girl, sure she was hyperactive, but that didn't mean that she had to judge her so quickly.

"But first," Patrick turned and pointed to an ice cream stand that they were walking close to. "Let's get some food." He turned and gave the two girls a smile. "It'll be on us of course." He added, motioning over to Noah, who smiled and nodded.

"Chocolate for me." Katie said with a nod.

"Same." Lizzie added.

The boys went and ordered some ice cream, bringing it back to the girls before biting into their own. Patrick took a large bite before he winced, holding a finger to his forehead. "Oh, crap." He winced again

"Brain freeze?" Noah asked.

"Yep." Patrick nodded before taking another bite of his ice cream. "Oh, God. I hate those."

Noah shrugged."I'm not sure why, but I don't get brain freezes."

Probably because you don't have much to freeze."

Noah scowled before reaching up and bringing Patrick's head down into a headlock. Patrick laughed and moved his free hand up to try and move his brother's arm from around his neck. The two spun in a few quick circles, locked together. Lizzie continued to eat her ice cream, as if completely oblivious to what was going on around her. Katie, who was watching, tilted her head to the side, slightly concerned.

"Do all guys act this stupid?" she asked.

"Just about," Lizzie agreed. "Maybe next time it should just be you and me."

"That's a good idea." Katie surprised herself by meaning it. She found herself smiling as she finished up her ice cream and waited for the boys to finish theirs. It took a bit as they continuously took jabs at each other, causing the other to laugh. "It'll just be the girls, no boys allowed."

"That'll go over great," Noah said sarcastically. "You'll just be bored without us there."

"Sorry, I didn't hear you." Katie apologized, turning her head. "What did you say?"

Noah fell silent and Patrick quickly jumped in, "It was nothing." He said quickly. "Nothing important anyway." He tossed his half-eaten of carton away into the trash can. "We were going to Central Park, right?" He started to speed-walk down the street. Noah followed at a slower pace as Katie and Lizzie brought up the rear.

"Did I say something wrong?" Katie asked as she and Lizzie hurried to catch up with them.

"Nah, they're just secretive people," Lizzie reassured her. "And they're probably nervous for the show tonight. But, they're your friends, so it's not like you should take it to heart."

Katie stopped short. "They're my friends?" she asked.

"Yeah," Lizzie agreed, turning to her. "And I am too." She blushed and looked at her feet. "Well, at least, I hope I am."

Katie smiled at her and the two caught up to the twin boys. "So are you excited for your guys' show tonight?" she asked them, changing the subject. "It should be really cool. I've never been to a place like Planet Hollywood before. I heard that they get a lot of celebrities there."

"You seem to talk about making money and meeting celebrities a lot." Noah commented.

"Well, yeah, I mean, isn't it cool to meet a lot of people that you thought only existed on, like, a movie screen?"

Patrick suddenly whirled around, looking angry all of a sudden. "You don't get it do you?" He shook his head.

Katie stayed silent, and he continued.

"You don't get what it's like to have to constantly be moving, to try and please other people. You don't get what it's like to be on tour for a year and then go back home and have some of your closest friends move on without you. You don't get what it's like to work, maybe, fifteen hour days, and then be told to constantly push yourself harder and harder until you want to collapse. It's not all fun and games." Katie crossed her arms over her chest as she looked away from him. "So the next time you say that I'm lucky to be doing what I'm doing, you might want to fucking think again, boofhead." He turned to Noah, who stood quietly behind him. "C'mon Buddy."

Noah looked over at Katie and shrugged before following his brother.

* * *

><p>"Great job, dogs!" Gustavo declared after the performance that night. The two bands had performed their four songs to a lot of positive feedback. They had just been signing autographs for the past hour, but now they had a chance to stop and eat dinner. They hadn't really seen any of the adults that night, but they were probably busy answering questions from the press. "I knew you had it in you, well, maybe not exactly, but still I knew it was somewhere."<p>

"Thanks Gustavo," Kendall said with a light roll of his eyes.

"Don't think that you're going to get off too easy, though," Gustavo added as he glared at Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. "When we get back to LA, you're going to have to work even harder when it comes to promoting your CD. I have a lot of appearances for you guys to go on." He then turned to the Jacksons, who were sitting quietly at the table, eating their dinner. "And I have a lot of stuff for you guys to do too."

"Thanks for the head's up on that," Rhuben remarked. "But it might have to wait a little bit.

"WHY?!" Gustavo barked.

"We have to go back home and do our own promotion and stuff." Riley replied, slowly turned to look at him. She shrugged. "We don't know the scheduling yet, but you can take it up with our Dad if you really want." She smirked as Gustavo's face turned a little red from the effort to keep himself from screaming.

"I _hate _that guy!" Gustavo declared before storming away from the table.

"He's not the only one." Sydney muttered under his breath. Since the music was so loud, no one had heard him. Gustavo's visit didn't really put a damper on their mood; it was already so high from the adrenaline that was still coursing through their veins. "So how do you guys think you did?" He asked, leaning forward in his seat so Big Time Rush could hear him.

"Uh, amazing!" James replied with a proud smile. "Did you hear all of those fans screaming my name?"

"You do realize that most of them were girls and it's because they solely judge you on your looks, right?" Riley asked, using her fork to push a bunch of French-fries around her plate. James gave her an incredulous look.

"And you think that's a _bad _thing?"

Carlos laughed and balled up a napkin, tossing it into James' face. He took the time to look around Planet Hollywood and spotted his friends. Once he was sure that it was them, he stood up in his seat and waved his arms over his head, loudly calling them over. He didn't sit down until they were halfway to the table and half of the restaurant was staring at him.

"I think I'm starting to understand why you guys try to keep him from doing things like this." Rhuben remarked as she held a hand over her face, whether it was from annoyance or embarrassment no one was sure.

"Now you know how we feel." Kendall muttered.

"Hey," Jo beamed as she, Stephanie, Camille, Katie, Lizzie, and Dak walked over to them. "You guys did such an amazing job!" They crowded around the table. "Do you guys now have time to talk to us since you're such big stars now?"

"Come on, you know that we would never leave you guys hanging like that." Kendall said as he pushed back his chair, allowing Katie to sit on his lap. "So what did you think of the show?" He asked her. Katie merely shrugged, looking unimpressed.

"Meh, I thought that you guys could do better." She said and then laughed when Kendall adopted a look of fake-hurt. "I'm kidding; you guys know that you rocked."

"She's right," Dak agreed. "I don't think I've seen people improve so much so fast." He nodded. "You definitely have some talent and I think that the fans that were here tonight can vouch for that. If I'm not mistaken, there are some trends on ScuttleButter going around already."

"Ooh, famous on ScuttleButter." Logan said sarcastically. "Sounds like every man's dream come true."

"Depending on what it's for," Stephanie reminded him. "It's good that it's for an achievement as big as this rather than-"

"Rather than the time that Dak got highlights in his hair, for a role, and it was plastered all over ScuttleButter for weeks." Lizzie broke in, always having to find a way to tease her brother at least once in every conversation. Dak rolled his eyes as the other laughed.

"I remember that," Riley said wistfully. "I called you Goldilocks for weeks, Teen Icon. You have to admit that was a good one." Dak smiled and nodded, agreeing with her. He then stood up and started to look around the restaurant. "Sorry, are we boring you?"

"No," Dak shook his head as he turned back to the others. "I was just looking for someone. I met a friend at the audition that I had," he explained. "And I invited him to come along as a guest to the show and he was here a minute ago. Anyway, "he shrugged. "I was thinking that you guys would like to meet him."

"Well, if he's _your _friend than he must be fine." Patrick said with a shrug. "Sure, we'd like to meet him."

"What does he do?" Kendall asked, taking a bite of his hamburger. "I mean, you said that he was at an audition that you were at. Is he an actor?"

"Yeah," Dak nodded. "Right now he works on a kid's TV show and he's thinking of branching out." He turned and then waved an arm. "Oh, here he is." Dak waited for a few moments before WayneWayne appeared at his side. As soon as they saw him, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Katie, and Camille all seemed to stiffen. Even under the bright lights, WayneWayne paled a little bit when he saw them, but stayed silent. "Guys, this is WayneWayne," Dak introduced, seemingly oblivious to the tension that had just arisen. "WayneWayne, these are my friends Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney," The Jacksons waved each time their name was called. Dak then turned to Big Time Rush. "And this is-"

"We met!" Kendall practically spat.

"Well, _that_ was a complete 180 in his emotions." Sydney remarked.

"I know, right?" Rhuben agreed, causing Sydney to smile.

Dak looked confused at Kendall's sudden hostility. "Oh, you have?"

"Yep," James popped the 'p' on the word. "He was the one that tried to kick Kendall out of the band a while back." Jo, Stephanie, and Lizzie turned to Camille for clarification and she merely nodded in reply. Things weren't just awkward for the guys; they were awkward for her as well. She used to be best friends with WayneWayne, and had felt badly when he was humiliated in front of the guys. She had kept in touch with him through Skype and texts every now and then, but had never mentioned it to the other guys, knowing that they would be upset about it.

Logan's eyes narrowed slightly. "You haven't heard about that?" He asked. Rhuben shot him a look; he looked back at her but continued. "I mean, you're working with Gustavo too, he didn't tell you?"

Dak shuffled his feet, a little uncomfortable. "I don't' work as closely with Gustavo as I used to, so no. Some things he doesn't tell me, some things he does. All I knew about you guys before working with you was what they've told me." He said, motioning to the Jacksons. "I don't think they knew about him either."

"Nope," Riley agreed, keeping her eyes diverted. She studied WayneWayne. "But, I _think_ I may have seen you before."

"You might have." WayneWayne replied vaguely. He turned to Camille and smiled. "It's nice to see you again, Camille. How have you been?"

"I've been good," Camille smiled and nodded in reply. She then shrugged. "I still haven't booked many acting jobs or anything, but I've been good. Hey," she reached out and lightly touched his arms. "Fingers crossed, I have a new audition coming up next week." WayneWayne smiled and nodded and then looked at his feet. "Logan," Camille turned from WayneWayne and placed her hand on Logan's arm, getting his attention. "Can I steal you for a minute? I just want to ask you something." Logan nodded and Camille moved her hand down to his, pulling him away from their friends and through the crowded restaurant. When they finally reached an empty spot of the room, Camille turned and gave Logan a nervous smile. "Could you ask me on a date?"

Logan wasn't expecting that to come out of her mouth, but it did. He expected her to ask him something completely irrelevant, something about their performance, even something about their homework. But not that. Camille bit her lower lip in worry as she waited for his answer.

"I've never been asked… to ask out on a date." he said with a soft smile.

"I'll buy the dinner and everything." Camille said quickly. "Just help me, please. And I'll wash your clothes, and even iron them for a month." She started to sound even more pathetic and desperate as each second passed. She hated herself for it, but it was the only thing that she could think of to try and get what she wanted, but by not being completely pushy about it.

"You really don't have to." Logan said. He noticed the disappointment on her face and rushed to continue. "Will you go out with me? Sometime after I catch up on all of my homework when we get back?" Camille had turned her face away, but she slowly looked back at him, obviously trying not to let a smile escape.

"What? She asked.

"Will you go out with me?" he repeated.

"I was… You don't have to pity me." Camille said after a minute. "I was just in need of a favor. You don't have to go with it."

"I don't need you to ask for a favor or wash my clothes for me to go on a date with you. I really want to go out with you." Logan insisted.

"It's just; Jo has really been getting on my case about asking you out instead of waiting for you to ask me." She explained.

"Camille, listen to me." he said, holding her arm. Camille looked at him. He was looking directly into her eyes. She had never realized how brown his eyes were. They went well with his tall, dark and handsome look and added a factor of mystery and cuteness. Exactly what she liked about him. "Camille, please go out with me. I don't care if you came to me first to ask for a favor. I wanted to ask you out actually, but I guess I never had the courage to do so."

"You wanted to go out with me?" Camille asked back. She was sure that he was going to change his mind because she sounded like an idiot. "Yeah. I'll go out with you."

"Great." he smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So, I tried to show more of Riley's and Rhuben's relationship as well as Patrick's and Noah's in this chapter. Again, it looks like the story is focusing more on Logan, but it needs to be that way for the beginning part. It'll show more of the other guys in the next chapter as well as the adults. Patrick's getting mad at Katie may seem to have come out of nowhere, but it's important.

I'm wondering if you think that I should have put the actual performance in here. If I did, it would only glimpse over a few songs, which was why I thought that I didn't have to show it. Let me know what you guys think of that, please. The only reason I didn't is because it's such a casual concert compared to their other ones. I might go back later and add a few of their songs, so keep a look out on this chapter.

This wasn't my best chapter either, so far the last two ones weren't, but I'm working on making the next one better.

Cheers,

-Riles


	22. How To Threaten Someone To Keep A Secret

**.:Chapter Twenty-Two – How to threaten someone to keep a secret:.**

_Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder.__~"Paul Valery__"_

* * *

><p>"Where are you guys headed?" Stephanie asked as she watched the guys walk into the lobby of the PalmWoods, bags slung over their shoulders. She tilted her head to the side, studying Carlos's. "That's not your hockey gear."<p>

"We're training at the beach today," James said with a grin, moving his bag from his side to behind him. "Patrick said something about running on the beach helps with endurance and stuff, but who cares about that?" He laughed lightly.

"I'm just glad that we're going to be working somewhere other than the gym." Logan said with a smile.

"Only because you don't want to be embarrassed that your wimpy arms can hardly lift any weights." James replied, poking Logan in the cheek. Logan scowled and pushed James away from him as Stephanie laughed.

"Hey, do you think they'd mind if I came along?" She asked. Carlos's eyes immediately lit up at the idea. She looked over at him and laughed a little as she held up her video camera. "I need some exterior shots for a film I'm working on, and the beach would be the perfect place to get it done." She then moved her hair over her shoulders. "Besides, I've needed to work on my tan."

"Well, I think that you look great already." Carlos said nicely.

"Thanks." Stephanie beamed back in reply.

"Well if you're coming along," Kendall put his arm around Logan's shoulders and then grinned. "That means that Camille is coming as well. You know, since she can't seem to be able to stay away from our Logie for so long." He reached out and pinched Logan's cheek.

"You've got that right." Stephanie agreed as James and Carlos laughed.

Logan groaned and pushed Kendall away from him. "Why is everyone abusing me today?" he complained.

"Because it's so easy." Kendall replied. "But you have to admit that I'm right, Camille would want to come to. And then Jo would want to come as well." He smiled warmly. "Why don't I just get Katie and we can all make a day of it?" he suggested. "I don't think all of us have hung out together yet." He added.

"Just one thing," Stephanie reminded them as the other guys nodded at the idea. "Don't you think you should ask the Jacksons whether or not we can go first? I mean, they're bringing you to the beach so you can get some training done, not to have the day off and goof off." She pointed out.

"She's got a point," James agreed. "Especially since we don't know if their Dad is going to be there." He added and then explained to Stephanie about him making the rule that BTR couldn't go to Blazing Phoenix Records unannounced to watch them practice or just to hang out because they'd be a distraction to his band. "You know, sometimes I feel like he's," he started to snap his fingers. "I don't know the word for it." He muttered and then turned to Logan. "Like he's living-"

"Vicariously through his children?" Logan supplied.

"Yeah, that."

"It's possible," Stephanie shrugged. "I mean, they're very famous and probably make more money than we could ever hope to see." She shook her head and lightly placed her left hand on her video camera. "Money and Fame make people do weird things. And it's not just those that are in the spotlight that are affected." She changed the subject. "So, why don't I find the girls and tell them what's going on and you can tell the Jacksons when they get here."

"You're only saying that so they don't, potentially, yell at you." Kendall noted.

"Exactly." Stephanie smiled in reply. "I may get along with them better than you guys, but I don't think that'll keep them from getting annoyed with me." She stepped around the boys and headed to the elevators.

"Hi guys," Sydney greeted as he and the Jacksons walked through the lobby of the PalmWoods. He had a towel draped over his head, a bright smile on his face. "Are you ready to hit the beach today?" He asked, and then clasped his arms over his chest. "I hope so, because you might not like it after how hard we work you today."

"Hey," Kendall smiled in replied as they settled in chairs around them. "Do you guys want to hear what happened while we were at the mall yesterday?"

"Why not?" Rhuben shrugged. "I mean, it seems that every time we see you, you have something to tell us." The corner of her mouth twitched up into a smile. "So why stop now?"

"Oh," Kendall looked a little embarrassed. "I didn't know I did that. Sorry."

"Don't be," Noah shook his head. "It's the highlight of our day." He didn't sound like he was being sarcastic. He even through in a small smile to make sure that it was ok. Kendall smiled back and continued to tell his story about how they had been mobbed by some fans that had seen their performance at Planet Hollywood, from the month before, on the internet. They had also gushed about how DE's music video (that BTR had been there to watch film) was really good, as it had premiered the same night.

"You're going to have to get used to that," Sydney remarked from where he was sitting on the side of the chair, kicking his feet back and forth. "Soon your privacy is going to be invaded like crazy and you won't be nobodies anymore." He gave a wide smile. "Just be glad that no one has tried to sneak into your apartment yet."

"People actually do that?" Logan asked, looking a little worried.

"You'd be surprised." Patrick replied. His eyes shifted to behind the boys and he smiled as he sat up straight, watching the girls walk over to him. "Hey ladies, how are you doing today?" he asked with a charming smile.

"Hi Patrick," Jo said. "Hi guys." She added to the rest of the Jacksons, who nodded. "How are you today?"

"As fine as could be expected." Riley replied with a nod. She looked at the four girls and then let out a slight sigh as she stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips. "Let me guess, you all want to go to the beach too?" She asked and didn't wait for them to answer. "Why not?" Noah gave her a weird look, which she noticed. "I'm not sure how we're going to fit everyone in our van, but if we get pulled over, just say it's my fault."

"It usually is." Patrick reminded her.

Riley gave a humorless laugh before smacking him on the back, causing him to let out a cry of pain. She waved a hand and started to lead everyone out to the parking lot so they could figure out their seating arrangements with the car.

"Kendall," Rhuben got Kendall's attention, lightly grabbing onto his arm. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah," Kendall stopped walking and turned to her. "What's up?"

"Well, it's about your progress with the performances and stuff," Rhuben said, pushing her hair behind her ears. "You did a good job," she said, noticing the worry that flashed over Kendall's face. "And you've improved a lot, but at the same time, you're not on the same level as the other guys and if you want to be really big, you don't want that to show on stage."

"But I'm not a dancer, I've told you that." Kendall reminded her.

"That's why I'm offering to give you some private lessons," Rhuben said. "I usually don't do it, but Gustavo _loudly_ suggested that I should, and Kelly think that it would help you as well." She cracked her knuckles. "I just think that it could help you in the long run."

"I didn't ask for the help." Kendall continued. He was a bit embarrassed really. He knew that he didn't want to do this at first, and had expressed it a lot. But now that he was actually trying, it didn't seem like it was coming as easy to him as he expected.

"It's the ones that don't ask for help that are the ones that need it the most." Sydney said as he walked by Kendall, keeping his eyes towards the ground.

"Well, I've got a doctor's appointment later today," Kendall said with a sigh, holding his hand above his face to shield it from the sun. "For me knee," he added and Rhuben nodded. "I'll let you know what he says and if it's good news, I'll take you up on your offer. I guess I need more help than I realized."

"A lot of people do."

* * *

><p>"Alright guys," Patrick placed his hands on his hips before he wiped sweat off of his forehead. "Take a 30 minute break for some lunch and then we'll get started on the second part of training today."<p>

Carlos let out an exaggerated groan. "The second part?" He screeched. "I thought we were done! I actually think I'm dying!"

"If you're dying, then I'm already dead." Kendall said, holding his arms over his face.

"Does that mean that back home I can have your room?" Katie asked eagerly, from where she was sitting on a large beach towel with Jo, Camille, and Stephanie. The three had been watching the two bands run back and forth on the beach, in between lifting weights, and doing crunches and push-ups.

"No." Kendall barked.

"Once you get some food in your stomach, you guys will be good to go on the next one." Sydney said as he walked over and sat next to Katie, dragging a cooler of food towards him. "You're going to have to be in top shape if you're going to have the stamina for a two hour show." He picked up a banana and started to peel it. "So far you'd be good for only two and a half songs."

"And this is coming from the nine year old that has been doing this practically since he could walk." Riley added as she reached over and ran her hands through her baby brother's hair, fondly. Sydney beamed in reply.

"Does that make anyone _else_ feel pathetic?" James asked, taking off his shirt and lounging on the ground.

"It should." Sydney said cheekily as he stuck out his tongue.

Everyone laughed a little. There was the sound of a whistle and they all looked up to see Robert standing at the top of a sand-dune, waving an arm above his head. Logan watched as Riley and Rhuben exchanged a look and Rhuben slowly got to her feet.

"I'll go see what he wants," she muttered as she brushed sand off of her hands. "Maybe we forgot something at home." She quickly went up the sand dune and met with her father. The two talked for a moment before Robert grabbed her arm and dragged her out of sight.

Logan quickly got to his feet from Camille's side and muttered something about finding the bathroom before following them. He waved a hand when Camille said that she would save some of their lunch for him, letting her know that he heard her, before following Robert and Rhuben. He stepped lightly into the parking lot, looking back and forth, trying to find them. When he did spot them, he hurried behind a parked car, and poked his head around; hoping to see and hear what was going on. Something told him that he needed to be there, to witness what was going to happen.

"-many times do I have to tell you that you're working for me? Not the other way around?" he head Robert say.

"I don't know," Rhuben replied, lifting her chin defiantly. "How long is it going to take for you to realize that you can't treat us like crap?"

Logan's eyes widened in shock as Robert lifted his hand over his head and smacked Rhuben across the face. She barely made a sound as her head whipped to the side. She merely rubbed her cheek as she turned back to him. Logan could tell from the way that she was standing that she was glaring hard at him, silently wishing she could say something back, but knowing that it would be useless.

"Honestly, why do you always have to make me mad like this?" Robert pulled a cigarette and a lighter from his pocket. He quickly lit the cigarette and put the lighter away, before using his free hand to grab Rhuben by the neck. "It's your own fault." He moved he cigarette to his thumb and index finger, pushed Rhuben's hair off of her neck, and quickly brought it down, pressing it against her skin.

Logan winced as a loud, painful scream tore from Rhuben's throat. He knew that no one else would be able to hear it; Robert had pulled her away far enough so that he wouldn't be interrupted. Logan would have been impressed if he wasn't feeling so sick about it. His stomach lurched as Robert picked up the cigarette, drew another breath, and then tossed it onto the asphalt, crushing it with his shoe.

"Next time listen to me," Robert said as he pushed Rhuben away from him. "Get back to work."

"Yes, _sir_." Rhuben replied, lightly holding her hand over the back of her neck as she scurried back down to the beach. Logan had flattened himself against a car as she passed, hoping that she wouldn't see him. When he was sure that he wasn't spotted, he slowly followed her, thoughts racing through his head a mile a minute.

What was he going to do now?

"Rhu," he called, hurrying after her. Rhuben turned around, removing her hand from her neck. Logan could see tears of pain in her eyes and she blinked rapidly, trying to get it to go away. "Do you want to have lunch with me?" He asked and then pointed at the pier. "Over at that burger hut, maybe?"

Rhuben looked back towards the parking lot and Logan watched her, knowing that she was making sure that her father was gone. Finally, she turned back to Logan and nodded. The two went over to the hut and ordered their lunch. They ate lunch in relative silence. When they did talk, it was about the performance that they had back in New York and how both of their music was going. At this point, it was normal conversation to have, the two bands were working close enough together that they saw each other almost every day. But that's not what Logan wanted to talk about. He wanted to bring up what he had seen, but he didn't know how to do it. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Tell me." Logan said, pushing his basket of fries away from him.

"Tell you what?" Rhuben replied, keeping her gaze away from him.

Logan squeezed his eyes shut before he turned on his stool to face her. "You know what I'm talking about." He insisted.

"No, I don't." Rhuben shook her head.

Her feet started to tap against the ground quickly, her knees bouncing up and down as she did so. Having known her since the two of them was eight; he knew that it was her sure-fire way of showing that she was lying. Whenever she lied, her feet moved as if she were taping out a drum beat, this time it seemed like a heavy metal tune that she was taping out. Rhuben leapt to her feet, stretching her arms as she moved to clear her glass from the table. Logan reached out and grabbed onto her arm. He could feel her trying to pull away, but he tilted his head back to look up at her.

"I know that you're being abused." He said quietly, hoping that no one else was listening to them. He kept his eyes on hers, willing himself not to look away. "I know that your Dad is hitting you. I know that he practically runs you guys into the ground. I saw him hit you, I watched him burn you with a cigarette. I know everything." He licked his lips as Rhuben slowly sat back down. "I just need to hear you say it, Bella."

Logan watched as Rhuben continued to look back at him with a hard stare. But as each second passed, she seemed to realize that he was telling the truth. Everything must have fallen down at that point, the perfect secrets, the well groomed lies, every time they went to the doctor and managed to convince them that nothing was wrong, it all got to her for her blank look turned to one of intense sadness before her face crumpled and she started to cry quietly. Logan leaned over and hesitantly gave her a hug. She moved her face into his chest, moving her hands over her eyes as Logan wrapped his arms around her in a light hug.

"It's alright," he said, rubbing her back as she calmed down. "We can go to the police, anonymously, and things will-"

Rhuben stayed silent for a moment, processing what he said. Logan broke off his sentence, wasn't sure what her reaction was going to be, she was well-known for not letting anyone know what she was thinking or feeling until it came out. "Are you crazy?!" She backed away from Logan, her eyes wide. "We can't go the police."

"What?" Logan looked at her incredulously. "Of course we can. We have to!"

"No, _we_ don't." Rhuben insisted. "Going to the police is the _worst_ thing that you could possibly do." She leapt to her feet off of the bar stool and started to walk away from the seaside burger hut. "Trust me; I know what I'm talking about. It'll just make things even worse than they already are."

Logan dropped some money on the counter and followed her down the boardwalk. "How can things be worse? He's _hurting_ you guys."

"You think I haven't noticed? It's been happening for years." Rhuben's right eyebrow rose. She gave him a 'give-me-more-credit-than-that' look.

Logan suddenly got it. "_That's _what the behavioral changes were." He said. "That's why you never want to be alone in a room with him, why you never say anything when he's demanding you guys to do stuff. That's why you're always so quiet and withdrawn."

Rhuben wiped at her face and then took a step closer to Logan, lowering her voice. "Listen, it's not that we don't want the help. It's that we can't _afford_ to have the help." Logan waited for her to continue. She looked away for a moment, closing her eyes before turning back to Logan. "Riles and I, we're sixteen. We're too old for someone to want to adopt us. Patrick and Noah are getting up there and Sydney is young, he'll definitely be taken. If anyone tells the police, we'll be split up. Riles and I will be lost in the system before we're thrown out on the streets, I don't know what'll happen to Pat and No. Syd had a really good chance of being adopted and taken away from us."

"So you were hiding it so you guys wouldn't be split up." Logan said. He let out a heavy sigh. "Rhu, something really bad will happen if you don't tell."

"We've made it this far," Rhuben shrugged. "Me and Riley take most of the hits so the boys are ok and so not a lot of the bruises are on them. No one else has to know. It'll come good." She took another step towards Logan. "And you can't tell." She said dangerously, her eyes narrowing into a fierce glare. "I swear to god, if you do, I'll _never_ speak to you again."

"Rhu-"

"We know what we're doing. Things can get pretty aggro sometimes, but Riley and I know what we're doing. Let us handle it." Rhuben paused, searching Logan's face. "Please."

"Fine." Logan finally agreed, knowing that he was going to regret it. "I won't tell anyone."

* * *

><p>"So the doctor said that I should be fine to continue dancing," Kendall said to his mother, later that afternoon as the two of them left the doctor's office and got into their rental car. It was raining really hard, the dark grey clouds hung low in the sky. He removed his jacket from above his mother's head as she got into the driver's seat before he went around to the passenger seat and got inside. "But he said that I should take breaks whenever I need it, just so I don't re-injure myself."<p>

"Well that's good to hear." Mrs. Knight said with a warm smile as she turned on the car.

"Not for Gustavo," Kendall said and laughed. "Now he can't yell at me whenever I need to stop because," he fished a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket. "I've got a doctor's note." He sang, swinging it back and forth, causing his mother to laugh as well.

"Hopefully that means that you'll stop talking back to him," Mrs. Knight said as she gave her son a fond smile. "But knowing you, that's probably not going to happen." Kendall merely smiled in reply, causing Mrs. Knight's smile to widen.

All of a sudden, Kendall moved sideways in his seat, practically smashing his nose and forehead against the glass. "Mom, I think that's Riley, stop." Kendall said, he then turned and leaned forward so he would see out the front windshield.

"How can you tell?" Mrs. Knight asked as she slowed down. Kendall squinted, straining to see through the rain that battered the front windshield.

"She's wearing red." Kendall replied. "So far, that's the only way that I can tell them apart."

He frowned as he leaned back.

Yes, that was her. She was slowly walking down the sidewalk, hunched over, arms crossed over her chest, not even bothering to try and keep her head from getting wet. He could tell that she had been out there for a while as he clothes were soaked and sticking to her body. She didn't look at anyone that she passed her, even when they gave her curious glances as they passed her. Once she got to the end of the street, she looked up at the street sign, studying it for a minute, looking completely lost, before crossing the street and continuing on.

"I wonder what she's doing out there. She's going to get sick." Mrs. Knight reached into the back of the car and grabbed the umbrella that sat on the backseat. "Kendall, get her in here."

Kendall took the umbrella and opened the car door. He stuck the umbrella out and opened it quickly before standing it up, holding it over his head. _Easier said than done, Mom. _Kendall thought to himself, steeling himself as he hurried down the sidewalk after her.

"Hey," he called, getting her attention.

Riley stopped walking, her shoulders moved up to her ears, and she slowly turned around to face Kendall. When she faced him completely, she moved her wet hair off of her neck and gave him a blank look. "Hey Hockey-Head, what are you doing here?" she asked. Her eyes shifted back and forth, her arms still crossed over her chest.

"Do you _have_ to call me that?" Kendall asked, tightening his grip on the umbrella. He shook his head as Riley smirked. He tilted his head back to look at the sky before motioning to the umbrella in his hand. "It's raining." He said.

Riley's eyebrows rose. "I hadn't noticed, Eyebrows." She said sarcastically.

"My mom's car is over there," Kendall said as he used his free hand to point over his shoulder. "You shouldn't be out here, you could get sick."

"Thanks, but I'm fine." Riley turned on her heel and started to walk again. "I'll see you later."

Kendall hurried after her and then moved in front of her, holding the umbrella over both of their heads. Riley bent her head to the side and squeezed water out of the end of her long ponytail. When she moved it back over her shoulders, it hit her back with a loud smack. Rain water rolled down her face, causing her eye makeup to run a little, but she didn't move to wipe it away. "Please, let us drive you home." He looked at her curiously. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Oh, my Dad and I had things to do," Riley said quickly. She then sucked in a sharp breath and turned her head away as if she was looking at the store across the street. She then turned her stare back to Kendall, looking nonchalant. "But, then I had to get some clothes, they didn't have what I wanted…and my mobile's dead so…" Kendall's gaze moved to her neck, his eyes narrowed when he saw a dark spot at the base of her neck, partially hidden by her hair.

"What happened?" he asked, pointing.

"My brother shot me in the neck with a rubber band gun." Riley replied, moving her hand to cover her neck. When her fingers moved over the spot, she winced slightly. "Are we done here?" She moved to side-step him and then let out a huff as he moved in front of her once more. "You're not going to let me go, are you?"

"No," Kendall replied, shaking his head. "I'm not, because I'm not going to let my friend walk home in the rain." Riley let out a heavy sigh and turned on her heel, walking back over to the car. Kendall kept pace with her, making sure that the umbrella stayed over her head. He noticed that she didn't say anything when he called her his friend. He felt that way, so did the others; they had known the DarkElements for about, almost two months now. After performing with them in New York and having worked with them for so long, they already felt that they were friends.

No matter how secretive they were.

But the boys weren't sure if the Jacksons felt the same way. Though they were a bit more open, a little more patient with their work than they had been before, the guys never got invited over to their house for dinner or just to hang out. They usually spent their time in the PalmWoods, going home when they had to, though Kendall noticed that it took a bit for them to actually leave after they said they would, as if they were purposefully stalling to go home. That, adding on the flinching that they usually did whenever one of them moved suddenly or went to give them a high-five. He noticed it when Carlos, who is a big hugger, would move to grab them in a bear-hug; they would practically throw themselves away from him.

Kendall shook the thoughts from his head as he opened the back door to the car and waited for Riley to get inside.

"One thing though," she said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Don't tell anyone that you saw me out here."

"Why?" Kendall asked, still holding open the door. His mother shot him a curious look.

"Just don't," Riley insisted. "It'll be out secret." Riley slid into the backseat and Kendall closed it before hurrying back to the front, closing the umbrella and then the car door. Mrs. Knight peeled away from the curb and started driving again.

"Thanks," Riley finally said after a few minutes of silence. Her voice cut the sound of the windshield wipers that moved back and forth across the screen. "For driving me home, Mrs. Knight. I really appreciate it."

"Just call me, Mama Knight, Sweetie." Mrs. Knight said as she gave her a quick smile over her shoulder. "Everybody does."

"Then, please, don't call me sweetie." Riley swiftly returned. Kendall looked at her through the rear-view mirror and caught the uncomfortable look that flashed over her face. She crossed her legs and hugged her arms tighter to her chest.

"Fair enough." Mrs. Knight said with a nod. "So where were you headed?"

"You can just take me to Ronan's apartment," Riley replied after a moment of thought. "Do you know where it is?" She rubbed her neck, grimacing.

"No, but I'm sure I can find it." Mrs. Knight replied as she picked up her phone from the dashboard. "He gave me his number in case I needed his help for something so I'll just get directions from him." She punched in his number and put the phone up to her ear.

"So what'd you go to the doctor's for?"

It took Kendall a second to realize that Riley was talking to him. She must have seen the papers that were in the back. He scratched his neck. "I had an appointment to get my knee checked out." He replied.

"Old injury?" She guessed.

Kendall nodded before turning in his seat to look at her. She held the paper in her hand, looking at what it said. "Yeah, I got whacked in my knee during a hockey game and it's been acting up ever since." Riley looked up from the paper, her blue eyes locking with his. He looked away under her intense stare. "It wasn't broken or anything, but we're not sure if-"

"You've got some scar tissue in your knee." Riley said, matter-of-fact.

Kendall's eyebrows furrowed. "What makes you say that?"

She shrugged, Kendall noticed that she and her siblings shrugged by raising and lowering one shoulder, rather than two of them. "Just trust me when I say that I know a lot about broken bones, sprains, and pains." She tossed the sheet of paper aside. Kendall continued to study her. Without turning her head, Riley flipped him off. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

"Sorry."

Kendall turned back to the front and put his ear-buds in his ears, turning his mp3 player on. He listened to Incubus and Taking Back Sunday all the way to Ronan's apartment building. When they pulled up, he spotted Ronan waiting outside, standing underneath the awning to the building. He raised his right hand in a wave as they pulled up to the curb. Riley didn't wait for the car to be put into park before she pushed open the back door, muttered a quick 'thanks' and darted out into the rain. Mrs. Knight and Kendall watched as Riley hurried over to Ronan and threw her arms around his waist in a hug. Ronan hugged her back and said something to her, placing a hand on her head before motioning for her to go inside.

Ronan then turned back and waved once more to Kendall and Mrs. Knight before going in after Riley.

"Huh," Mrs. Knight said as she pulled away from the curb and headed back to the PalmWoods.

"What?" Kendall asked, noticing the noise she made.

"Nothing," Mrs. Knight replied after a moment. "Just thinking."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So, if you guys are confused, there has been a bit of time jump from the last chapter to this one. It's been a little over a month to be exact. Also, my only question is would you guys rather see more abuse, or see more of the guys, girls, and adults trying to find out what's going on while DE desperately try to keep their secret? You'll see the adults in the next chapter.

Also, what else would you guys like to see as the story progresses?

Cheers,

-Riles


	23. When To Know Something Is Wrong PART 1

**.:Chapter Twenty-Three – When To Acknowledge That Something Isn't Right PART 1:.**

_"Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude." ~Ben Franklin**  
><strong>_

* * *

><p>Gustavo ground his teeth together, willing himself not to let his anger and annoyance get the better of him. He continued to stare at Griffin, who stood across his desk from him, arms behind his back and with his two assistants. As usual, he walking to Gustavo about something that he either wasn't doing right, or he had some crazy idea that he wanted Gustavo to try out with the boys. But, as per usual for Gustavo, he wasn't listening. He was thinking of all of the ways that he could potentially get Griffin out of his hair so he could have peace and quiet for once.<p>

"Gustavo, how are the boys doing? Has anything improved since you went to New York?" Griffin concluded his tirade with those questions.

Gustavo ran a hand over his face. "Griffin, I told you, we're not going to know anything about the numbers from New York, including the new CD sales, for a few months." He said as patiently as possible. "You can't expect to know everything as soon as we get things done. We've only just gotten back from New York about a month ago."

"But things have to move quickly in the music industry," Griffin reminded him. "And don't forget, Big Time Rush is your last chance…"

Gustavo didn't have to ask what he meant. He _knew_ what Griffin meant. Hell, everyone in the music industry knew what Griffin meant. If Big Time Rush wasn't a success, Griffin was going to let Gustavo go, from his own record company. In reality (even though Gustavo hated to admit it) it made sense. He hadn't had a hit in almost ten years, and then he went to the Rolling Stone magazine to do an interview, and he couldn't help but slip out that he could make anyone a star. Now everyone was waiting for him to prove himself, even Kelly. If he didn't do a good job, she would lose hers as well and he couldn't let that happen.

Not if he was going to be the one that was behind all of it, because he put some blind faith in some guys that got on his nerves.

"In face," Griffin continued, snapping Robert back to attention. "Robert has already told me that his band has sold more singles over here than they anticipated. People are really starting to pay attention to them."

"For one, I don't see why you even care what he's doing, considering he's part of a different record company," Gustavo said and then interrupted when Griffin opened his mouth to continue. "Yeah, yeah, I get that we're rivals, but I could give a shit about what he does, really. Because he's a load of crock."

"But you have to admit that whatever he's doing is working." Griffin said patiently, noting Gustavo's back-talk.

"What's working is that he's intimidating everyone to do this his way," Gustavo said as he shook his head. He stood up and moved around the desk to face Griffin. "I'm not sure if you _really _understand this, but Robert Jackson is a bastard. He'll step on anyone and anything to get his way. He's ruthless and he's blacklisting himself in this industry."

Griffin took a step towards Gustavo and got into his face, looking down at him. His two assistants moved towards him as well, but Griffin held up a hand and waved them off, his eye still on Gustavo. His assistants looked at him curiously before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. Gustavo glared at Griffin, silently challenging him to say what he really wanted to say, everything that was on his mind. The two had a weird relationship. It wasn't just boss and employee, it was more like, they both worked hard to out-do each other, without saying it out loud. The fact that Griffin was the CEO of Gustavo's record company drove him up the wall and he was sure that Griffin knew it. It would explain everything, every humiliating thing that he had to do just to try and sell a few CDs. Most of his failed projects were because of Griffin, BTR would have been another one if they kept WayneWayne, it was like Griffin was purposefully trying to make him fail.

"Listen, Gustavo, I don't think you understand who is running things around here." Griffin said forcefully. "Do you remember, _exactly _what I said after we had signed Robert and the DarkElements?"

_"Gustavo," Kelly said quietly, her eyes still on Griffin. "Maybe you should explain to them what they had done wrong instead of yelling at them." She finally looked over at Gustavo, who was glaring at her. "We don't want another medical emergency do we?"_

_"Whose side are you on, anyway?" Gustavo snapped back._

_"I'm on your side," Kelly replied, starting to become impatient. She waved a hand in Griffin's direction. "But-"_

_"But, this band isn't progressing as fast as I hoped they would," Griffin said, finally speaking. He walked over to Gustavo, his arms still behind his back. Through his blazer, Gustavo could see his arm muscles bulging. "You're doing a good job, Gustavo," his eyebrows rose for a minute. "If I do say so myself." He cleared his throat. "But you're going to need more help than I thought." Gustavo opened his mouth to shoot off a retort, but Griffin continued speaking. "I mean, you're the one that is trying to come back after ten years of not having a hit song or a hit band-'_

_"9 years," Gustavo interrupted._

_"And you're __also__ the one that was saying that you could make a dog a pop-star," Griffin held a hand up in front of Gustavo's face. "And your dogs," his eyes moved over to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. "Don't fit the bill so far. So I'm going to go with my plan; you bring them to the music video shoot tomorrow and you'll find the band that Big Time Rush is going to be working with."_

_"But they're representing two genres of music that are trying to make a comeback," Kelly jumped into the conversation, walking over to Griffin. As she was Gustavo's assistant, Griffin was also her boss, but unlike Griffin, she wasn't as scared of him as much as Gustavo was. "They're going to be rivals." She then snorted. 'Besides, Gustavo hates their manager."_

_"And with good reason!" Gustavo added, his face turning red again._

_"Dude, calm down," James warned. He and his friends had been watching the exchange quietly, not sure whether or not it was a good idea to jump into the conversation. "The shade of your face so does not go with what you're wearing."_

_"I still don't like you!" Gustavo snapped as he pointed at James in between the eyes._

_James nodded simply, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Got it." He said._

_"Come on guys, let's not get angry!" Carlos cried as he jumped into the conversation, lightly slapping the top of his hockey helmet in effect. "Why don't we all just calm down and think happy thoughts?"_

_Griffin looked over at Carlos and then turned back to Gustavo, pointing a finger at the boys. "Maybe working with them will toughen up your puppies a little bit." He concluded, causing Kelly and Gustavo to let out heavy sighs, their shoulders slumping. Griffin smiled and looked at his watch. "I'm going to be making so much more money; I think it's time to buy another llama." He raised a hand. "Good day to you all." With that, he turned on his heel and left the dance studio._

"So how's your llama?" Gustavo questioned.

Griffin slowly smiled as he reached up a hand and patted Gustavo on the cheek. "Good boy," he said with pride. "You're starting to sound like me." He placed his hands behind his back once more. "I wasn't joking when I said that you needed to work with him and even though you're rivals, I'm not letting it jeopardize my company and everything I've done with it."

"You mean, my-"Griffin interrupted Gustavo once more.

"If you can't do as you're told, or pick this company up, I'm going to have no choice but to fire you." Griffin threatened. But he said it in a way as if he was going bird watching. As if it didn't bother him at all. "And I _will_ fire you if I have to." He turned on his heel. "Have a nice day." He said over his shoulder before leaving the office.

Gustavo went back to his desk and sat down, burying his face in his hands. He was silent for a few moments before letting out a loud yell of frustration. He slammed his fists on the desk, resting his forehead against the edge.

He hated Griffin.

There was no other way he could say it besides those three words right there. He _hated_ Griffin.

"Gustavo-"Kelly hurried into the office.

"WHAT?!" Gustavo exploded. Kelly, who was used to his screaming, merely blinked at his outburst. She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for him to calm down. "What is it?"

"It's time for our meeting." She said calmly, silent asking what got him bothered so much. She knew it had something to do with Griffin; he never got that upset if it _wasn't _for him. His mere presence could do that, but it had to be something even worse than his weird ideas if he was that affected by it.

"What meeting?" Gustavo spat, his eyes narrowing behind his sunglasses.

"The one with Ronan and Mrs. Knight," Kelly replied. "And…the one with Robert."

Gustavo's upper lip curled.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **This was originally going to be a chapter with all of the adults, but then I realized that I needed to do this with Gustavo. I hope you guys liked it. Thanks to everyone for reviewing. :)

Cheers,

-Riles


	24. When To Know Something Is Wrong PART 2

**.:Chapter Twenty-Four – When To Acknowledge That Something Isn't Right PART 2:.**

_"Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude." ~Ben Franklin_**_**  
><strong>_**

* * *

><p>"Alright, what's this stupid meeting about?" Gustavo demanded as Kelly closed the door to the conference room behind him. "I could be doing something more interesting and worth my while than talking."<p>

"Gustavo this is important," Mrs. Knight said firmly, her hands lightly placed in her lap. She looked over at Ronan, who was slouched in his chair, he looked angry. His hands were in his pants pockets, balled up into fists and his eyes weren't focused on anything, he was just staring straight ahead, looking right above Gustavo's head. "It's about Robert and-"

"Did he get hit by a bus?" Gustavo asked, suddenly looking alive. "Better yet, a train?"

"Gustavo," Kelly rolled her eyes as she sat down in the chair next to him. "I know that you're still mad about Griffin but-"

"Griffin visited you?" Ronan suddenly looked interested, finally looking Gustavo in the eye. "What did he say?"

"Nothing that you need to worry about," Gustavo grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What did you want to meet me about if Robert isn't dead?" He studied Ronan's and Mrs. Knight's faces and then slowly sat up straight. He took off his sunglasses and put them aside, rubbing his nose. "Wow, this must be serious," he said slowly. "I don't think I've ever seen you not make a joke before, McGuire, and you dislike Robert as much as I do."

"I don't _dislike _him," Ronan replied as he shrugged. "I've never disliked anybody. I just think that what he's doing is disgusting."

"What _is_ he doing?" Kelly asked.

"We think…" Mrs. Knight took a breath. "We think that he might be hurting his kids." She said. She pushed her hair from her face. "Kelly, you can't tell me that you haven't noticed the signs, they're there." She insisted.

Kelly twisted a strand of her long, dark hair around her finger as she thought about it. She knew that something was up with Robert for as long as she knew him. He didn't act like regular managers. She knew that he pushed his kids hard, and she had talked to him about it before, but he said that it was only to make sure that they were successful and that they didn't end up like other child stars that lost their way. He wanted them to be grounded and to be humble and to be well known for their success. But even she had to admit that some of the things she had seen him do over the years was worrying.

Mrs. Knight took Kelly's silence for hesitation. "It's there." She insisted and then started to count off on her hands. "The bruises, they always seem to be watching someone or something, as if they expect something bad to happen, they flinch whenever someone suddenly moves, they jump at loud sounds, they don't ever really want to go home, they seem to stall whenever they have to. They've been wearing nothing but long-sleeved shirts."

"So?" Gustavo asked.

"It's 90 degrees out almost every day." Ronan pointed out. "And that's not all, they seem to, like, shrink whenever Robert comes around them, they don't ever make eye contact, I've seen them wear the same clothes sometimes. The doctor called me one day and he was worried, because he told me that they had been there to see him about seven times in one _month_." He shook his head. "I know that kids can be clumsy, but that's not normal."

"And then there's the fact that they tend to be overly aggressive," Kelly mulled over the thought.

"They make excuses all the time," Gustavo added. "Especially for their dad. On more than one occasion that he is late for a meeting that we're supposed to have, one of them would call me to apologize about it and give some sort of excuse as to why he's late. I've noticed some bruises too, when I asked, they always had some answer ready about it. I know that he works them really hard, they're always so tired."

"I can vouch for that." Ronan agreed. "There are many times that I'd sit in to watch them rehearse something and they'd be at it for hours."

"Isn't that normal for this industry?" Mrs. Knight asked, confused.

Ronan shook his head. "Not when they're _that_ young and not without enough breaks for food and water."

Mrs. Knight nodded slowly. She ran everything through her head, thinking back to the times that they had come over to apartment 2J to have dinner, or when Patrick, Noah, and Sydney would sleep over. It might have been her motherly instincts that made her pay attention to it, but she _had _noticed times where they would be a bit off by themselves, not getting really close to the others. They _had _flinched or jumped whenever someone moved to give them a high-five after a video game. For his age, Sydney did seem withdrawn, not acting like a normal kid. Patrick and Noah did seem protective of him. Riley and Rhuben did seem to act older than they were; she would even say that they acted like their brothers were their own kids at times. But that was like what Kendall did to Katie, whenever she wasn't around; Kendall would step up to make sure that she was OK.

But ok from what?

She remembered a specific incident. It was the first night that Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were sleeping over. The boys and Katie had done everything they could to make Patrick, Noah, and Sydney feel comfortable, but they still didn't say much. They didn't seem to want to do much to upset anyone else either. Patrick continuously offered to help her with the dishes or to clean up the mess they had made, Noah was as polite as ever, making sure to say 'please and thank you' and 'yes ma'am' and 'no, ma'am' whenever she asked a question. Sydney just watched everyone, making sure they didn't go out of his sight, as if expecting to be hit. It was when they went to bed that it was weird, the Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had decided that they would sleep on the pull-out couch, not to put out anyone from their beds. Everything was quiet for a while, but then Mrs. Knight was awoken with a scream. She hurried out of her room with Katie behind her, crashing into the boys along the way, and hurried into the living room, wanting to know what was going on. Sydney was on the floor; wrapped up in a blanket, seemingly distressed as Patrick and Noah did everything they could to comfort him and to keep him quiet. When Mrs. Knight had what had happened, Patrick quickly said that he had a nightmare and that everything was ok and to go back to bed. Mrs. Knight, deep down, knew that there was something else wrong. You didn't scream like that from a nightmare, it was a scream as if he was being hurt, being completely terrified. Against her better judgment, she had gone back to bed. Now she knew that it was more than that. It had to be something more. The next morning when Riley and Rhuben had arrived to pick them up, Sydney latched himself to their side and wouldn't let go.

Everything was glaringly obvious, it was sitting them right in the face but they didn't want to say it out loud, for that it would make it real, make it true. That Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were being abused. And from the looks of it, and the way that they easily went on with their day, it seemed like they were being abused for a long time.

"I can't believe that he's stooping so low to something like that," Gustavo growled. "I'm not even particularly fond of the dogs don't respect my authority but even I wouldn't hit them. That's sick!"

Kelly turned to Ronan, who had suddenly gone silent, looking away. "You've had your suspicions for a long time, haven't you?" She asked gently. When he nodded, she pushed a bit further. "How come you didn't say anything?"

"Because they acted normally around me," Ronan replied after a minute. "Most people don't see it, but they really aren't like what the media portrays them to be. They're really smart and nice and are very compassionate and will do anything for someone if they need help. I've seen that a lot. It was those moments that I wouldn't be convinced that he was doing anything, but still, he really is hurting my kids like that."

Gustavo let out another grunt. "So, now that we all agree that that's what he's doing, why don't we just send the police on that sucker?" He leaned to the side and pulled his phone from his pocket. "They'll go over to his house, bust his sorry ass and-"

"You don't think that he hadn't thought about that before?" Kelly interrupted Gustavo, grabbing his phone. "If it's been going on as long as we think it has, he's probably had the police called on him numerous times. And it's not like people hadn't noticed, Ronan even said they went to the doctor seven times in a month." She paused. "How did they know to contact you anyway?"

Even Ronan looked confused. "I don't know," he shrugged. "He said that my name was on the records, but I've never been with them at the doctor's office."

"Maybe Robert was trying to pass the responsibility on you." Mrs. Knight suggested.

"Why am I not calling the police?" Gustavo asked again. "Oh right," he added when Kelly turned to him. "Because he knows how to keep the police happy and make it seem like nothing is going on at all." He rolled his eyes and muttered slanders against his 'co-worker' under his breath.

"At the photo shoot that day," Ronan stated after a moment of silence. "Robert was drunk. And that woman that was there was their social worker, since he's their foster father, she comes every now and then to check up on them. I've met her before," he explained. "And she's said that he's been nothing but a good father every time she's been around." He snorted. "He really knows how to fake it."

"It might be that he's overwhelmed," Kelly added. "I don't mean to say that he has a justifiable reason," she added when Gustavo, Ronan, and Mrs. Knight gave her looks of disbelief.

Her hands were shaking with rage, disgust, and sadness. She couldn't believe that people were being treated like that, people she knew. Especially since she came up in such a loving home and knew nothing but love and that she was loved. She knew that abuse was a problem; she just never thought that she would know anyone that it was happening to.

"Then what _are_ you saying?" Gustavo demanded.

Kelly thought for a moment, gathering her thoughts together before she continued. "Well, he suddenly adopted the five of them, _and_ their oldest brother Julius. But he has to work with the five of them as Julius is studying in college back home. He has to be their father as well as their manager. The stress of everything must be getting to him. Especially if he hasn't had any kids before."

"But it's not something that you just suddenly do, it's something you learn. There's a cycle somewhere," Ronan said. "I know that his Dad used to be really hard on him, maybe he's a victim of abuse as well, and since it's the only parenting he knows, it's what he has defaulted to."

"And the drinking?" Kelly prompted.

"Dealing with the memories?" Ronan shrugged. "I don't know." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.

"You said that Julius is back in Australia?" Mrs. Knight asked suddenly. Ronan nodded, his jaw set and his eyes flashing. "Do you think that he knows that they're being abused too? Or that he was while he used to be with them?" Ronan suddenly looked at her, a curious expression crossing his face.

"Julius _is_ coming to town soon," Ronan murmured as he licked his lips. "Maybe we can get him to help."

"Sure, he can help," Gustavo said as he leapt to his feet, his chair falling to the floor with a loud crash. "He can help hold Robert down while I give him a beating!" He slammed one fist into his other hand. "I've wanted to punch this guy in the face for a _long_ time and now I have a reason to."

"Gustavo, beating him up isn't going to help anything." Kelly called to him as he moved to leave the room.

"It's going to help _my _sanity." Gustavo shot back.

"_Wait_, Gustavo," Kelly turned back to Ronan and Mrs. Knight, keeping Gustavo in her sights from the corner of her eye. "Why don't we talk to them about it before we do anything to rash? We can cask them what's going on?"

"Then they'll feel like they're being interrogated and probably just lie to you about it," Ronan said with a shrug. "I've tried before. I know it's bad, because they _never _lie to me. The best way to do it is to slowly bring it up in a random conversation and be sure to let them know that nothing is their fault. But if they kept it a secret this long, then there's a reason they haven't told anyone."

"Why?"

"Shame probably." Gustavo suggested. "Being in the spotlight like this, it's probably because they don't want anyone to know about it, just so they can keep doing what they love."

"How can you love something like this when they're being pushed into it?" Kelly put her face in her hands.

"Because music has healing properties and it can be an escape. That's what I've heard anyway." Ronan sighed. "I've tried talking to Robert about it too, but he keeps walking away when I try. I think we should try talking to them first, and then if that doesn't work, go to the police and report it anonymously."

"I hope we aren't waiting too long." Mrs. Knight sighed. She suddenly lifted her head, her eyes wide. "We can't tell the boys," she said, speaking of Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. "I don't want to worry them, at least, not until we're completely sure that this is what's going on. I know that they're aware that something is up, but I don't want…"

"We get it, Kace, don't worry." Ronan said, placing a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it gently. "We're going to figure out what to do," he dropped his hand to his lap. "Don't worry."

* * *

><p>"Don't you think that they're going to be a little upset that we invited them over here to talk to them, instead of hanging out like we originally told them?" Camille asked, biting her thumbnail as she stood in the PalmWoods lobby. "I mean, we don't even know if anything is wrong."<p>

"I know," Jo agreed, turning away from the front door to face her and Stephanie. "But they've been acting weirdly ever since we were at the beach, I mean, after their father showed up." She used both hands to push her hair out of her face. "They worked the guys _really_ hard, and it seemed like, I don't know, that they changed as soon as he came around."

"I noticed it to," Stephanie said with a short shrug. "I mean, they seemed more withdrawn, they were opening up a little." She tilted her head to the side. "But, we said that we were going to go to the mall, don't you think they'd be a bit pissed that we suddenly bombarded them with this? Besides," she turned to Jo. "I thought you didn't like them."

"I didn't say _that_," Jo defended herself. "I just said that I wasn't sure if they were the kind of people that we would like to hang out with. But they proved me wrong."

"How?" Stephanie crossed her arms over her chest. "You've never actually hung out with them one-on-one."

"And you have?" Jo shot back.

Stephanie nodded. "I went to the music store with Riley and Rhuben last week." She said. "There wasn't anything really alarming with that trip. They were kind of quiet, that's it. Not as quiet as Noah, but still."

"It's because he's really shy," Camille explained. "That's what I gathered from their interviews and stuff, anyway." She turned to Jo. "So how are you actually going to ask them if anything is wrong? It's not like you can come right out and say it, that'd be rude."

"I don't know," Jo shrugged. "_You're_ the actress, why don't you figure it out? You can act like someone that's confident enough to ask something like this."

"Something like _what_ exactly?"

The three girls turned around to see Riley and Rhuben standing behind them. Riley held a box in her hands, a hard look was on her face; suspicious and annoyed. Rhuben's face was completely blank, but she continued to move her gaze from Jo, Camille, to Stephanie over and over again. Stephanie gave them a smile, rubbing the back of her neck, not sure what to say. She then noticed the box and pointed at it.

"What's that?" she asked. Riley held the box out to her and Stephanie hesitantly took it. She looked at the twin girls before opening it, smiling when she spotted a Jack Skellington design pair of shoes in the box. "Awesome!" she cried, holding them up.

"These are for you, too." Rhuben added, removing her hands from her jeans pockets and held two smaller boxes out to Jo and Camille. They quickly opened it and saw pink and blue leather wristbands inside it. "We were at the mall that one time, Riles and I remembered that you guys said that you wanted this stuff, but you couldn't afford it so…" she shrugged, looking embarrassed as she looked away.

"But you didn't have to get it for us," Camille said, surprised at the gift. She exchanged glances with Jo. "It must have cost a lot.

"Yeah, well, Dad said we could blow off our paycheck from the restaurant with whatever we wanted," Riley rubbed the back of her neck. _Plus, he won't notice that we used his credit card since he hardly checks his bank balance anyway._ "And we didn't need anything so, whatever." She looked away. "It's not that big a deal."

"So…what was it that you wanted to talk about?" Rhuben asked. That prompted Jo, Camille, and Stephanie to exchange glances once more. _Not like I can't figure out what it is already. _"Or should it even matter, considering that you were talking about us behind our backs." She added, her eyes narrowing.

"Ok, well, it's not as bad as you would think." Camille brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, before wiping her hand on the side of her jeans. "And we didn't mean to talk behind your back, but we're just really worried about your guys."

"Why?" Riley asked.

"Well, you're-"

"Acting funny?" Rhuben interrupted Jo. "It's not the first time we've heard that. Some people even say that we act like jerks. But last I checked," she placed a finger on her chin and pretended to think. "You were our fans and thought that it was cool the way we acted. At least," she lowered her hand. "That's what we gathered from your comments online."

Riley smirked. "It wasn't hard to figure out," she motioned to Jo. "You once sent us a video of a cover of one of our songs," she turned to Camille. "You put comments up on our website," she then turned to Stephanie. "And you sent us a video, showing us your cinematography skills. And you mentioned that you were fans before."

"It's not like we still don't feel that way." Jo said, raising her voice a little, trying to be heard. _How did things spiral out of control so quickly? _"We like you guys, a lot, we just can't help but notice that-"

"If there _was_ something going on-"Riley started.

"-Which there's not-"Rhuben broke in.

"What makes you think that it's any of your business anyway?" They harmonized. If the situation wasn't so serious, it would have been funny and the girls would have laughed in amazement at how easily the twins spoke in unison.

"Cause we're your friends." Camille reminded her.

"Are you a few sheep short of the station?" Riley snorted. "When did _that_ happen?" She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow, waiting for Camille to answer. They were interrupted as a 'ding' emitted from the elevators. The girls turned to see Big Time Rush leave the elevators and walk over to them. Once Riley spotted them she rolled her eyes and Rhuben muttered something under her breath as she rubbed her forehead.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Kendall asked as he and Logan approached them. James and Carlos were walking slower, talking animatedly, obviously arguing about something.

"What do you think, Hockey-Head?" Riley shot back.

"I don't know," Kendall shrugged. "That's why I asked."

"We were just talking." Jo replied.

"And now we're done," Rhuben lifted her right hand and gave an exaggerated finger-wave before stepping around Jo, Camille, and Stephanie and walking towards the front of the PalmWoods. She looked over her shoulder, slowing down and ducking behind a potted plant, dragging Riley with her.

"Ow!" Riley cried, smacking her forehead on a low branch.

Rhuben ignored her sisters' pain. "Seriously, we have to stay away from these people or they're going to get too close to figuring out what's going on."

"I know, I know," Riley replied, pushing her red strand of hair behind her ear, her other hand still rubbing the red spot on her forehead. "I was thinking the same thing. Maybe we should start moving into that new place that we found, it will keep us away from her for a while and we wouldn't have to worry about the stares and the silent questions."

"Good idea." Rhuben sighed through her nose. "If we didn't sign that _stupid_ contract," her hands clenched into fists. "We wouldn't have to worry about it."

"The contract part was fine, we just didn't realize that these people were so fucking nosy." Riley peered around the potted plant. "Ok, they're distracted, let's get out of here while we have the chance." She stood up and motioned for Rhuben to follow her out of the apartment building. She and Rhuben stopped in their tracks when they heard Carlos's voice behind them.

"Hey," Carlos greeted cheerfully. He placed his hand on Riley's shoulder. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Hand off, hand _off_!" Riley spazzed, immediately throwing Carlos' hand off of her shoulder, her eyes growing wide. When Carlos and James moved in front of her and Rhuben, she looked away, a look of shame coming onto her face. "I don't like to be touched suddenly." She explained.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." Carlos replied.

"You didn't," Rhuben said quickly. "So why aren't you sitting with your idiot friends?" She asked, tossing her head in Kendall's and Logan's direction.

"Well, they're a bit busy with their girlfriends right now," James followed her head tilt and they all turned to see Kendall, Jo, Logan, and Camille talking to each other and laughing, Stephanie had walked off. That was a bit of a relief, but not good enough. As they watched, Camille reached out and slapped Logan across the face, causing Riley and Rhuben to wince, before she grabbed him by the neck and started to kiss him. "You can see why we don't want to be over there right now." He added as Riley and Rhuben turned back around.

"Kendall and Jo are dating?" Rhuben asked as she drummed the fingers of her left hand on her right arm, as her arms were crossed.

"Yep," Carlos nodded. "You probably wouldn't have noticed since they weren't actually official. But they've been dating, kind of off and on, for about, maybe, three months now." He shrugged when he noticed an odd look pass over Rhuben's face. She turned to Riley and raised her eyebrows and smirked, and Riley rested her cheek in the palm of her hand and rolled her eyes back in reply.

James nudged Carlos and pointed to an open table on the pool deck. He then turned back to the girls with a questioning look in his eyes. Riley hesitated before nodding and the twin girls followed him and Carlos to the empty table. "So what's going on with you and Dak?" James asked Rhuben as he, Carlos, Riley, and Rhuben sat down. Rhuben gave him a weird look and he picked up a PopTiger magazine off of the table and flipped it open to a page with an article (one of the many) that talked about them possibly being together. Rhuben rolled her eyes and shook her head as Riley said, mirroring Lizzie from earlier,

"In his head, a lot, in reality, nothing." She said with a laugh, causing Rhuben to smile a little.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help but notice it." James shrugged as he rolled up the magazine and tossed it into a nearby trashcan. He then turned back to Rhuben with a charming smile as he raised his eyebrows. "Anyway, I think you would be better off with me, Beautiful" He added, pointing to himself. "And that goes for both of you."

Rhuben smirked, leaning back in her seat. "Well, we will never know, because of that rule." She reminded him.

"So you're saying that if that rule wasn't in place, you'd consider going out with me?" James asked, his eyes lighting up.

"Maybe," Rhuben shrugged.

"I'll take that for now." James said with a laugh as he flipped his hair from his face. "But mark my words, you'll be mine."

Riley blinked once and then rested her arms on the table. "It's a good thing you're good looking, Handsome." She remarked.

"Why's that?" James looked confused, although his eyes held nothing but pride.

"Because I'm trying _really_ hard not to punch you in the face for that comment," Riley replied, although she looked a little pleased. James to let out a mini-shriek and shield his face with his hands. He opened his fingers and peeked through them, making sure that Riley wasn't moving to haul off on him. When she didn't move, he sat up straight and flashed the girls a quick smile, although he looked a little weary. The two blushed lightly.

"What about me?" Carlos asked eagerly as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "Would you go out with me if you had the chance? What about me? What about me?" He then tried to mimic James' charming smile, but it made his eyes crinkle and made his smile look like a forced one rather than a natural one.

"Has anyone ever told you, you have a lot of energy?" Riley asked him. Carlos nodded rapidly with a bright smile and Riley turned to James. "Seriously, what is your obsession about who we could be potentially dating?" Riley asked, changing the subject, keeping her eyes on James. She held up a finger to Carlos, letting him know she would answer his question in a minute. "You asked the same question when we were first getting to know each other."

"I'm just curious." James shrugged.

"No offense, but that's the biggest bunch of bull shit I've ever head." Rhuben said as Riley rolled her eyes. She looked away, scratching the side of her neck, before pushing up the sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt, and then lightly fanned herself.

"Are you ok?" Carlos asked in concern.

"I'm fine." Rhuben replied evenly, slouching in her seat.

"If you're sure," Carlos said quietly. It wasn't even that it was that weird that she was wearing long sleeves when it was so hot out. He and his friends did that a lot (and still did) just because their clothes weren't really equipped for California as it was for Minnesota. Back in Minnesota, you were long-sleeves almost all year long, even if it got pretty warm. It hadn't really bothered him. But they should be used to the weather, enough to wear short sleeves, as they lived in Australia for a long time (where from what he understood, hardly got cold) as well as LA. He decided to change the subject, knowing that it wasn't worth having. "What about me?" Carlos asked again.

"I think that you already have-"Rhuben stopped, her head snapping to the side. She looked through the crowd, her eyes narrowing before they widened. She immediately leapt off of her seat, knocking it down in the process. "Uh, we have to go." She said, lightly tapping Riley on the arm. "We'll see you guys later."

Riley followed Rhuben's gaze and then she scrambled out of her chair as well, before the two sprinted out of the PalmWoods.

"What was that about?" James asked Carlos.

"I have no idea."

…

..

.

"So here's where we're going to stay for a while," Riley said as she stood in the doorway to the abandoned apartment. Sydney dropped his backpack to the ground and hurried over, jumping onto the couch. He bounced once and then turned to his sister, giving a nod of approval. "What do you think?" She asked Patrick and Noah.

"It's going to have to do," Noah said with a nod. He flipped his fringe out of his eyes. "I mean, there aren't many places that we can go for free that won't start to ask a lot of questions." He added. "Great job, guys."

"Thanks." Rhuben let out a sigh as she dropped into a chair that was sitting by the couch. She brought up a foot and rested it on the edge of the seat as she rested her arm on the upraised thigh. "So, basically, what we have to do now is make sure that Logan doesn't say anything to anyone."

"We wouldn't have to worry about that if you didn't blab to him." Patrick reminded her as he leaned against the back of the couch, resting on his palms. Rhuben gave him a sharp look and he merely rolled his eyes in reply. "You know I'm right." He added after a minute.

"You think I don't know that?" Rhuben snapped.

"Guys, don't fight, what's done is done." Riley said as she closed the door and leaned against it, resting her right foot on the door, her left one on the ground. "Besides, you can't blame Rhu for this; any of them could have directly asked us what was going on. You can't deny something that you see with your own two eyes."

"You can," Sydney pointed out. "We've done it before, especially to the doctor."

Riley nodded, agreeing with his statement. He was right. There had been many times that they had been asked directly by the doctor back home, whether or not things were ok at home. They just said things were fine, that they were a very physical family. That was true for the most part, whenever they were having fun, or just playing around in general, it usually escalated to playful roughhousing. But it never got to the point where they got sprains of bad bruises. They knew that the doctor knew that, they could tell from the careful questions that they were asked, they could tell from the long pauses that the doctor took in between the answers that were given. But they continued to lie about it anyway, because they were afraid that it would get back to their father, they were afraid that it would get them killed, because they were afraid to be split up.

They were scared, plain and simple.

Or, to quote their father; they were cowards.

Worthless cowards.

"So," Patrick crossed his arms over his chest. "I think that we," he nodded to Noah. "Should make sure that Logan gets the message that he can't tell anyone what he saw, heard, or what he knows. It wouldn't be good for him or for us."

"And the message is?" Sydney asked, his chin in his hands, his feet kicking back and forth behind him as he laid down on the couch.

"If he can't keep his mouth shut, Dad is going to come after him," Noah replied. "And that's a fact."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I hope that you guys liked this chapter. I'm trying to make it a bit more realistic with the adults wanting to talk to DE first, before calling the police. So let me know what you think about that. Also, the next chapter with have more of BTR with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney as I haven't really shown that yet. Also, you'll see more of Katie in the next chapter.

Long chapter are back, yay! :D

Cheers,

-Riles


	25. When To Know Something Is Wrong PART 3

**.:Chapter Twenty-Five – When To Acknowledge That Something Isn't Right PART 3:.**

_"Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude." ~Ben Franklin_**_**  
><strong>_**

* * *

><p>Katie hitched her pool bag over her shoulder, gathering her towel in her arms. Seconds later, she dropped it back onto the bed, dropping her bag as well. She then moved away from her bed, her flip-flops smacking against the soles of her feet as she moved over to her computer and booted it up. She had only browsed the internet for a few minutes before she closed the monitor, letting out a huff of frustration.<p>

_So many places to go in LA and there's __nothing__ for me to do._ She thought to herself as she moved her brown hair out of her hazel eyes. She got up from her desk and left her room, wandering out to the sitting area of the apartment, hoping to find someone that was doing something interesting. All she found was James and Carlos playing a video game (typical) and Logan heading out the door. _Maybe he's doing something interesting._

"Hey Logan, where are you going?" she called after him.

Logan stopped and turned to her with a pleasant smile, his hand on the doorknob to the front of the apartment. He shifted his backpack up his shoulder and replied, "I'm going to the library to check out some books then I'm going over to Camille's apartment so we can work on our papers together."

Katie rolled her eyes. "You mean so you guys can suck each other's faces off." She corrected him, causing Logan to blush in embarrassment, although he looked pleased at the idea. _Boys. _Katie crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't you ever get tired of making out all the time? I mean, she practically jumps you every time she sees you, it's _disgusting_."

"One think you have to learn about guys, Katie, is that all of us want to be jumped by a girl." Carlos commented from the couch.

Katie rolled her eyes again as Logan gave her a smile and a wave before leaving the apartment. It wasn't like she wasn't surprised, ever since the two started going out, you would find them kissing like crazy more than you would see them actually hanging out with anyone else. Kendall and Jo were kind of the same, but not to that extent. If Kendall wasn't around, he was with Jo; Katie even started to notice that he was around _her_ more than he was around the other guys lately. Not that she would say it out loud, but she was starting to get a bit jealous over the fact that she and Kendall hadn't really spent any time together since they had gotten out to LA.

Katie turned on her heel and started to walk over to the couch. Maybe playing some video games would help keep her from getting so bored. Besides, beating the guys always put a smile on her face, especially when they got mad at the fact that they had gotten beaten by a girl, _especially_ because she was younger than them.

"I got next game." She said as she flopped down onto the couch next to James.

"No problem." James and Carlos muttered in reply, their eyes on the TV screen as their hands jerked back and forth with the controllers in them.

Katie laughed lightly at the monotone sounds of their voices as she settled into the couch, watching them play. Only a few minutes had gone by before someone knocked twice on the door. Katie, James, nor Carlos made any moves to get up. When the person knocked twice again, Katie leaned her head back, keeping her eyes on the screen.

"It's _open_!" She shouted.

"You do realize that if you don't bother to see who's at the door some ax maniac could come in a murder you, right?" Patrick said as he and Noah slowly entered the apartment, looking around. They visible relaxed before walking over to the couch.

Katie's smile faded slightly. She wasn't sure if she was mad at him exactly, but she wasn't happy to see him, not after the way that he had yelled at her in New York. It was embarrassing, she had only said something so simple and he snapped at her and left her and Lizzie out on the street, with people staring at them. Lizzie had quickly jumped to his defense, saying that it was stress and the two girls continued sightseeing before they went back to see the show, but she was sure that that wasn't it at all. No matter how much stress you were in, you wouldn't yell at someone like that that quickly. Katie turned back around to watch James and Carlos, who had half-heartedly muttered a greeting, catching Noah's eye. He gave her a warm smile and she nodded back before focusing on the TV.

"What are you guys doing?" Patrick asked. "Oh, are you playing Halo 4?"

"Yes! It's _awesome_!" Carlos cried and firmly pressed a button on his controller. He laughed triumphantly as James let out a scream of terror, watching as his character was blown up by a missile. "Got ya!"

"You're going to pay for that one," James replied as his character re-spawned.

Noah poked Patrick on the arm. "You didn't come here to play video games." He said to his twin brother. Patrick sighed and nodded before reaching out and lightly tapping Katie on the arm, getting her attention.

"Look, I wanted to apologize for yelling at you like that back when we were in New York." Patrick said sincerely. "It wasn't right, I was stressed and annoyed, and I shouldn't have taken it out on you." He shrugged. "I just hate it when people act like our job is the easiest thing in the world and that all we care about is the perks of our job and that's really not it. We care about our fans and we care about making music that people like as well as what we like and since I've been doing it for so long…" his eyes darkened and he looked away. Noah nudged him with his shoulder and he cleared his throat, looking back at her. "Either way, I'm sorry." He gave a lopsided smile and when he spoke again, his accent filled his voice. "We're still friends, yeah?"

Katie thought for a moment, she definitely wasn't going to make this easy. "I thought that you said that you guys didn't know to be friends."

Patrick hesitated, his eyes shifting over to Noah. Noah took it upon himself to answer. "It's not that we don't know how to be friends…" he said slowly, looking pained as he tried to explain it. "It's that we don't really know how to _keep _them. Our busy schedule makes it hard for people to put up with it for so long, even when we're home on break. The paparazzi and the fans…"

"Do you guys ever get chased or anything?" James asked as he paused the game and got up from the couch, looking impressed. "By girls and stuff?"

"Not really," Noah shrugged. "Only when we did some press thing in-"

"-Brazil," Patrick jumped in. "They don't do well with personal space. But back home-"

"-Since we're so big-"Noah continued.

"The paparazzi are the problem." The two chorused. "They make up lies in the tabloids all the time."

Carlos stared at the two of them, his eyes wide, as he sat on the couch on his knees, his arms draped over the back of the couch. "Oh my god, that's _so_ weird!" He declared before jumping to his feet. "How you guys talk in unison like that," he added at their weirded out looks. "Hey, if I punch one of you, will the other feel it?"

"No, but as a reflex, I might punch you back." Patrick replied with an easy going smile as Noah frowned.

Katie noticed and asked, "You get that question a lot, don't you?" She asked.

"More than you would think." Noah replied.

"What?" James's forehead wrinkled as he leaned a bit closer. "I'm sorry; I couldn't hear what you said."

"He said, we get that question more than you would think," Patrick replied and then put his arm around Noah's shoulders, putting him in a headlock. "You have to forgive him; he doesn't like to talk to people. Isn't that right, Buddy?" He asked and playfully pushed him away. Noah smirked and hit him on the back of the head, causing his older twin brother to laugh.

"There's no problem with that," James said with a grin. "You just have to learn to be more confident though," he gave him a curious look. "You don't seem to have that problem on stage…"

Noah merely shrugged.

"Anyway," James crossed his arms over his chest. "What were your guys' plans for today?" He asked and then motioned over to Carlos. "We were thinking of hitting up the pool to chat with some of the girls down there today." He grinned as he nodded slowly. "Do you want to come?"

"At the risk of Riles and Rhubes finding out and killing us, no thanks," Patrick grimaced.

"Where _are_ your sisters anyway?" Carlos asked as he took his helmet off of his head and spun it between his hands. "And Sydney? You guys are usually all together." He added.

"Riley and Rhuben are working and Sydney is probably with them." Patrick replied slowly, as if he was making sure that each word he said was acceptable.

"Do you have the day off from the studio today?" Carlos's nose wrinkled in confusion.

"No," Patrick looked confused in return, shaking his head. He raised a hand up and scratched his head, being careful of the spikes that were placed in his hair and then his eyes widened. "Oh, no! I mean, they're at work at the mall, we don't go to the studio until later."

"The mall?" Katie repeated.

"Yeah, we have part time jobs in the restaurant in the mall," Patrick explained. "The Cascade Café? Since our schedule isn't as hectic here as it is at home and we can't touch any of the money we make until we're eighteen…" his eyes dimmed. "Dad thought that it would be a good idea so we didn't hit him up for money and so we can stay down-to-earth."

"Why don't you tell them our life story, Buddy?" Noah asked sarcastically, lightly shoving him.

"Whatever," Patrick rolled his eyes. "Anyway, pool's cool, let's go or whatever." He now looked annoyed.

"Do you need your suits?" Katie asked, tilting her head to the side. "It doesn't look like you brought anything over."

"First thing you learn about living in warm climates," Noah said and he and Patrick lifted the bottoms of their shirts, showing off their six packs, and moved the waist bands of their jeans to the side, showing off the tops of their swim trunks underneath. "You always bring your bathing suit with you."

"Shield your eyes!" James quickly moved to Katie's side and slapped his large hand over her face. He used his other hand to grab onto her waist, swinging her behind him. "Shield your eyes, there's nothing to see here!"

"James, let go!" Katie cried, frantically kicking her legs.

"Let's go before Bitters tries to kick us out of the pool." Carlos said with a laugh and led the way out of the apartment. James, still holding onto Katie, followed after him. Patrick and Noah brought up the rear.

"Hey, don't you want to lock the door?" Patrick asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Mama Knight has the key," James replied.

"But don't you think that there's a good chance that you stuff could get stolen or whatever?" Patrick continued.

"Uh-"Carlos started.

"No," Noah shook his head. "Hold on a few seconds, he'll get it." As he said that, Patrick's face turned from one of intense confusion to complete clarity. He smiled and blushed a little bit as he nodded. "And we're there." Noah said, his eyebrows twitching in amusement.

The five started towards the PalmWoods pool. "You didn't answer his question."

Katie looked up and blinked when she realized that Noah was speaking to her. She had heard him, it was kind of hard to though, but she thought that he was talking to James and Carlos. Her eyebrows crinkled together as she thought about what he was talking about. Whose question didn't she answer?

"Huh?" she asked, pushing her hair behind her ear.

"Patrick asked if we were still friends," Noah replied, holding his long fringe out of his face with his hand. "You didn't answer the question."

Katie shrugged. "I'll let you know." She replied teasingly. "I haven't really decided yet. It might be sort of a drag."

Noah snorted but didn't say anything else. They arrived at the pool and James immediately went over to talk to two pretty brunettes who were standing by the smoothie bar, waiting for their order to be filled out. Noah hesitated for a moment, looking over at Patrick as the two followed Carlos and Katie to a few empty pool chairs. Patrick looked back at him, shielding his face from the sunlight that shined on them, and nodded encouragingly in reply before giving an encouraging smile. Noah gave a fleeting smile back before he sat down on the end of a pool chair and stripped down to his swim trunks. He immediately folded his arms across his chest, hunching in on himself.

"Hey, what happened here?" Carlos asked, lightly poking Noah on the back. Katie leaned over and winced at the circular purple-black bruise that was sitting there.

"We were playing sting-pong yesterday and I lost." Noah said, giving a half smile.

"What's sting-pong?" Carlos immediately took to attention, getting so excited that he accidentally squeezed a bottle of sunscreen in his hands so hard that it splattered open onto the concrete. "It sounds like a fun game."

"A _stupid_ game is more like it." Katie remarked.

"Depends on your point of view." Noah wrung his hands together, resting his arms on his knees as they bounced up and down. "Basically you take a ping-pong ball, bounce it back and forth across the table. Whoever loses the point has to turn around and get smacked in the back by the ball."

"Like I said, dumb." Katie rolled her eyes.

"If you think that we're so dumb, how come you hang around us so much?" Patrick suddenly asked. By the flatness of his tone, Carlos wasn't sure if he was joking or being completely serious. He didn't bother asking though, as his eyes turned back to Noah's back.

He then noticed a scar that was on his shoulder blade, but didn't ask about that either. _It could come from a lot of things. I mean, that's why you have to wear your helmet, because Mom and Dad thought that you hurt yourself too much. And you have a lot of scars from hockey, so it doesn't necessarily mean that anything's wrong. _Carlos reassured himself, rubbing sunscreen on his arms. He then noticed that Katie hadn't changed out of her clothes.

"Aren't you going to go swimming?" he asked.

Katie shrugged, looking away from him as she flushed a little. "I haven't decided yet."

"Guys, let's play some volleyball," James suggested as he walked back over to them, looking gleeful. He turned and pointed to the girls behind him. "I just got those girls' attention and I want to be sure that I keep it."

"Best thing for you to do is to get that spinach out of your teeth." Patrick replied and then smiled as James freaked out and started to run his tongue over his teeth. "Dude, I'm kidding, relax." He then looked down and pointed at the concrete. "But you might want to watch out for-"

"Whoa!" James stepped on the sunscreen that Carlos had spilled and slipped, landing hard on the concrete. He let out a slight cry of pain as he landed on his arm. "Ow." He sat up, holding up his left arm. His skin had been scraped and some blood was running down his arm. His left leg, which he had tried to use to catch himself, was swelling slightly at the knee.

"Are you ok, James?" Katie asked, standing up along with Carlos, Patrick, and Noah as they crowded around him. "What hurts?"

"Let me see," Noah pushed James's hands away from his knee and looked it over. "You'll live; just put some ice on it if it swells even more, the pool water may do you some good though. Take some pain pills and get some sleep and you should be fine soon."

"Wow, you really know what to do." Carlos said as he and Patrick helped James to his feet. He held his hands out to steady James as he tested his weight on his knee. His leg buckled slightly, but then James was able to walk around with a slight limp. He turned and gave Noah a warm smile.

"I should, I get hurt enough has it is." Noah replied without thinking. As soon as he realized what he said, he turned as white as a sheet.

"That reminds me," Patrick suddenly jumped in, before anyone could say anything to what he had just blatantly admitted, and grabbed his jeans off of the pool chair. He flipped it back and forth a few times, looking for something, and then pulled a few plastic badges hanging on strings out of his pocket. "We have a show at the Roxy coming up soon and we wanted you guys to be there." He turned and handed Carlos the badges, who grabbed them and passed them out to James and Katie. "There's enough for Kendall, Logan, and Mrs. Knight as well." He placed his hands on his hips and rubbed his nose with his shoulder. "You can invite Jo and Stephanie," he cleared his throat. "And Camille if you want, each badge grants you a guest."

"Awesome," Katie's eyes lit up as she looked over her badge. "I'll invite Lizzie to come."

"She's in New York with Dak; they won't be back in time for it." Patrick said. _Thank god. Keep a secret from the guys is easy 'because they don't know us that well, but from Dak and Lizzie, even Ronan, its like, torture. _"But bring whomever you want."

"I'm sure that Gustavo has us on the list already anyway." James said as he flipped his hair from his face. He smiled and nodded at a girl that walked by before turning back to the others. "You know, already figuring that you could teach us a thing or two that he thinks that we can't learn." He rolled his eyes.

"Gustavo's not _that_ bad," Katie said. "He just wants to make sure that you guys do well."

"That's what they're for." Carlos said as he pointed to Patrick and Noah.

"And don't forget it." Patrick grinned, holding up a hand for a high-five. Although he was the one that initiated it, he couldn't help but wince a little as James reached out and gave him a high-five. "Let's play some volleyball!"

Carlos let out a loud, shrieking cheer as he raced forward and jumped into the pool with a messy cannonball. James followed him with a striding dive into the water. Patrick motioned Noah over to the side as Katie slowly started to change into her bathing suit.

"I know what you're going to say," Noah grumbled before Patrick could open his mouth. "It was an accident, alright."

"I wasn't going to say that," Patrick denied. "I was going to say that I think…that it might be a good idea if we distanced ourselves from them…after today, just for a bit. Riles and Rhubes would probably say the same thing, but I only want to be sure that you guys are ok with the others around."

Noah gave him a strange look. "I may be younger than you by, like, two minutes-"

"More like five." Patrick interrupted.

"Five minutes." Noah corrected himself as he rolled his eyes. "But the only one that we really have to worry about is Syd. Don't waste your time on me. I'm fine, but thanks for the thought."

The Jacksons had a strange way of 'taking care of each other' depending on who was around. If all five of them were around, Riley and Rhuben quickly fell into that pattern, making sure that their brothers had everything that they needed for the day. If they weren't, then Patrick and Noah usually took it over. If Riley was gone, Rhuben did it, and then if Rhuben was gone, Patrick did it. It was a way that each of them made sure that they took care of their family, as they didn't want to rely on anyone else to do it. They tried not to show it much whenever they were around their friends or in public, because they knew that people would ask a lot of questions, but it was a peace of mind for them.

Noah said as he held up his hand. "I love you, Buddy." "I love you, too, Buddy." Patrick replied, clasping his twin's hand in his.

"Are you guys going in?" Katie asked as she walked over in her light blue one-piece. At the sound of her voice, Patrick and Noah quickly turned around.

"Yes," they replied in unison. Patrick waited until Katie had jumped into the pool as well before he turned back to Noah. "Did you remember to put on the water-proof cover-up?"

Noah sighed. "Yeah."

* * *

><p>Kendall shifted his large bag of shoes, Vans, to his left hand as the handle started to cut into the palm of his right hand. He couldn't help but smile at his purchase, he knew that girls got really…weird about shopping, and for him, it was for Vans. They were the only kind of shoes that he would ever wear and he had about twenty pairs of it in his closet back at the apartment. And that wasn't all of the pairs that he had, some of them were put into storage when his mother decided to rent out their house while they were in LA. He was walking through the food court, trying to decide if he wanted to get something to eat there or wait until he got home. When he remembered that his mother was out all day doing who knows what, he decided to get something to eat there.<p>

He was on his way to a McDonald's when he noticed Sydney sitting in a booth of a nearby restaurant, playing a handheld video game, letting out an excited shout every now and then. Kendall smiled as he walked over to the younger boy/his co-worker.

"Hi Kendall." Sydney greeted as Kendall sat down in the booth across from him.

"Hey Syd, how's it going?" Kendall asked, setting his bag down on the ground. "Are you getting something to eat?" He asked, looking over the menu that was sitting by him, untouched. From the nine year old was sitting in the booth, his shoes off and his legs crossed, let him know that he had been there for a while, although Sydney didn't look bothered. "Are you waiting for someone?" He added.

Sydney nodded, not taking his eyes off of the screen to his game. "Riley and Rhuben are working and Dad had to go to meetings all day. I decided to stay with Ri-Ri and Rhu-Rhu so they had company." He put the game aside and finally looked at Kendall. "Just so when things got kind of slow, they didn't get bored."

"Oh," Kendall's eyes drifted to the bruise that took up the side of Sydney's face. "So, did you get hit by a door?" He asked, referring to the spot.

Sydney gave a wry smile. "More like got knocked to the floor by my older brothers." He added. "We like to wrestle a lot."

"Mhm," Kendall kept his smile up. _I wonder if that's a lie too. _"So why didn't you just go with them today? Where are they anyway?"

"PalmWoods?" Sydney shrugged. "Patrick said he was going to go apologize to Katie for yelling at her…and I wanted to stay here." He turned his gaze away and grabbed a handful of straws from the dispenser and started to rip off one end. He then put the straw in his mouth and blew the paper off of the straw and across the table.

_Apologize for what? _Kendall suddenly realized that Katie had been acting differently since they had been in New York and made a mental note to talk to her about it. They hadn't talked as much as they used to and he wanted to be sure that she knew that she was still important to him, no matter how big the band got. _Maybe I should take her and Mom out for dinner to say 'thanks' since they gave up their lives for us._

"Hey Little-Man, is this customer bothering you?" Rhuben asked as she and Riley walked over. She reached out and ran her fingers through Sydney's hair, causing him to smile.

"No, he's keeping me company," Sydney replied. "Since you changed your shift to today and we didn't need to go to Rocque Records, and I didn't want to go…" his eyes shifted. " I've been kind of bored." He admitted. "Especially waiting for your shift to end at 9:30 so we can go to the studio to work with Ronan."

"I didn't peg you to be a shopper, Hockey-Head?" Riley stated as she pointed to the bag by his feet. "What did you get?" She tilted her head to the side. "Fake teeth in case yours get knocked out?"

"No," Kendall ignored the dig and turned the bag to the side. "I just got a few new pairs of shoes."

Rhuben looked at how big the bag was and shook her head, moving the black, circular tray that she was carrying under her arm. She then placed her free hand on her hips, showing off her dark purple colored nails. "It looks like you got _more_ than a few new shoes. You sure you don't have any for Jo in there? Maybe she bribed you with a few pairs to get her some as well." Her eyes flashed with amusement as Riley laughed.

"No, they're mine." Kendall replied. "Speaking of shoes, I was wondering how you think I'm doing with our private lessons." He said, causing Rhuben to think about it for a moment. "I've been working really hard," he added quickly. "The steps that you give us are really difficult and I want to make sure that I do a good job for my buds."

"You're doing as to be expected," Rhuben replied. "So relax."

"Hey," Sydney smiled, breaking into the conversation, as he pointed down at Kendall's bag. "Riley wears Vans too. She obsesses over them." He then turned to Rhuben. "And Rhu-Rhu likes Punkrose, do you-"

"Don't bother him, Syd." Riley interrupted, causing Sydney to fall silent.

"He's not bothering me," Kendall said quickly as he stood up. "In fact, I was the one that came and sat _with_ him. But since he said that he was bored," he looked down at Riley and Rhuben. "I wouldn't mind bringing him back to our apartment while you guys finish your shift." He looked around behind him. "I didn't know you worked here." He added.

"Not many people do." Riley said evenly.

"Pat, No, Riles, and I do for extra spending money since our schedules here are so…relaxed." Rhuben added, her tone turning icy as she studied Kendall. "Syd comes to help wash dishes every now and then and to help us serve if we're understaffed." She added, Sydney quietly nodding behind her.

"Like I said, I'd be willing to take him back to our apartment." Kendall reiterated. "I can watch him."

"That's really up to Syd," Riley added, pointing to her brother, who perked up, his eyes widening as he smiled.

Kendall crossed his arms over his chest. He looked away for a minute before looking back at the twin girls. The temperature in the area seemed to have dropped, but the AC hadn't kicked in, and there wasn't a draft anywhere. But he could definitely feel it. "What's wrong with you?" Kendall asked.

"Me?" Riley said, raising her right eyebrow.

"You're being so…so…" Kendall said.

"So?" Riley prompted.

"Antisocial weird."

"Get used to it." Sydney remarked.

Rhuben laughed and gave her baby brother a fond smile, causing him to smile back that his dimples appeared in his cheeks. Riley looked at Rhuben and raised her eyebrows, letting out a breath and running a hand through her hair. Her lips slowly curled into a mischievous smirk. "You'll be on your best behavior right?" Riley asked, looking like she was trying not to laugh as Sydney nodded.

"Just treat him….like all of the other babysitters." Rhuben added. Sydney grinned and quickly scrambled down from the booth and hurried to Kendall's side. "We'll come by to get him later." She said to Kendall.

"No problem," Kendall replied with a warm smile and then snapped his fingers. "Or, I'll just take him to the studio when your guys' shift is done," he added, looking at his watch. "I could bring the guys and Katie and…maybe…we could stay and watch you guys record?" He added with a sheepish smile. Riley exchanged a look with Rhuben and the two looked at each other for a few moments, finally Rhuben raised her eyebrows and the two turned back to Kendall.

"It might do you some good," Riley shrugged, lightly shaking her head. "That way you know what _real_ talent is like." She pulled her phone from her pocket and handed it to Sydney before she and Rhuben held up their hands. They quickly flashed their index finger, four of their fingers, and then three of their fingers, prompting Sydney to do the same.

_I love you._

_I love you, too._

"Ha," Kendall said sarcastically. "I'll see you guys later."

"I give him ten minutes." Rhuben waited until Kendall and her brother were out of earshot before turning back to her twin sister, confused. "Don't you think they'll figure everything out? Once they hear the songs that we're working on?"

"If they haven't figured it out now, it may take a while," Riley replied as she wiped her hands off on her apron. "Besides, that's what we want, right? Ultimately?" Rhuben shrugged as well. Riley then blew her hair out of her face. "You know that Ronan would have let them stay if they showed up randomly anyway, so it wouldn't even make a difference."

"What if Logan says something?" Rhuben reminded her.

"We'll just make sure that that doesn't happen," Riley said after a moment. "And you know us; we'll make sure that we get our way when we _need_ to get our way."

Rhuben smirked.

…

..

.

"So what do you want to do first?" Kendall asked as he opened the door to the apartment to let Sydney inside. He looked around, noticing that the apartment was quiet, much quieter than usual. _The other guys must be out, _he reasoned to himself. _Oh well, that gives me more time to figure things out. _He closed the door behind him and then laughed when he heard Sydney's stomach growl loudly. He turned around and laughed as Sydney blushed, his hands on his stomach. "Lunch it is, then." He said and then went to the kitchen. "Make yourself at home; help yourself to whatever you want."

"Don't ever say that when Patrick is around." Sydney warned Kendall as he sat down at the kitchen table. "He'll eat all of the food in your refrigerator."

"Sounds a lot like Carlos." Kendall said as he grabbed leftover hot dogs and stuck them in the microwave. He then went to the refrigerator to get a soda for the both of them.

Sydney watched Kendall. He wasn't sure how he felt about him and his friends. On one hand, they were the closest friends than he had in a while, on the other, they were liabilities to his secret. Sydney reached up and touched the puffy side of his face. It had happened that morning when Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah had been late to getting their father up for work, no matter how hard they tried to wake him, he wouldn't until his late alarm went off. Sydney didn't move out of the way fast enough and he put his anger out on the youngest member of the family. His siblings had apologized profusely and he just sucked it up and said that it was ok, it could have happened to anyone. He didn't want them to feel guiltier than they already did. The lie that he came up with, being knocked to the floor, he knew that Kendall didn't believe it though.

He wasn't sure how much the blonde member of Big Time Rush knew, but he was smart enough to know that it was more than any of them could afford.

"Hey, what's that?" Kendall asked, pointing to Sydney's right ankle.

Sydney looked down at it, expecting to see a bug, bracing himself to explain a bruise, but then relaxed when he spotted the familiar barbed wire that was tattooed around his ankle. He lifted his head and gave Kendall a grin. "My tattoo." He replied.

"You have tattoos?" Kendall asked, looking a bit shocked. Either that he had them or that he had them because he was so young. Sydney was used to it, he got that question a lot. But it wasn't like he didn't want one himself, he had parental permission, it was no big deal.

Sydney shrugged. "You kind of can't be a rock band if you don't have a tattoo." He replied. "We all have barbed wire around our right ankle. And then Noah has his nickname across his shoulders and a star on his left shoulder blade, Patrick has his nickname across his shoulders and a star on his _right _shoulder blade, Rhu-Rhu has a music note on her right bicep, and Ri-Ri has a nautical star on her right hip, a ball of flames on her right bicep, and a black dragon on her right arm." He then puffed out his chest and said boastfully. "I want to get another one, a star on my shoulders."

"Did it hurt?" Kendall asked curiously.

"I don't know," Sydney shook his head. "I don't even remember getting it," he shook his right foot. "But it's cool." He then studied Kendall's face as he continued to look serious. "The only reason you usually don't' see it is because we only show them for specific photo shoots and for our performances. We got a lot of flack about having tattoos, so many of them at our age, that we agreed with Ronan that we'll cover them up with make-up whenever we're around little kids and their parents and some appearances, but for photo shoots, when we're out by ourselves, and for our performances, we can show them off."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're really smart?" Kendall asked. "You, like, read my brain."

"I get that a lot." Sydney smirked.

"I'm sure you do."

"But it makes sense though," Sydney said as he crossed his legs in his seat, watching as Kendall sat across from him with his own food. "I'm a genius." Kendall gave him a look and he nodded earnestly. "Really, I am. I'm part of Mensa and everything. Most people don't believe me though; kids call me a liar until I prove them wrong."

Kendall shifted in his seat, not sure how to bring up the question that he wanted to ask. So he did it slowly. "Is it hard for you to make friends because you're so smart and because you're in such a famous band?" Sydney nodded as he took another bite of his hot dog. "I'm only asking because it doesn't seem like you have many friends your age. Or that it would be hard to have them."

"You're right," Sydney agreed. "It's hard because I'm always away from home. But that's why I love it so much, I'm with my best friends 24/7. And my brothers and sisters take really good care of me."

"But isn't that a job that's for your Dad?" Kendall asked, grabbing a handful of chips and starting to eat them slowly. Sydney looked back at him, his dark brows knitted in confusion as Kendall's green eyes bore into his blues ones. "I mean, he's your manager, he should be taking care of you guys."

"But he's also, basically, a first time father to six kids," Sydney defended his dad quickly, his eyes growing wide. "If you don't count my brother, Julius. So, it's hard on him, my siblings help out." He lowered his gaze to his lap. "It's no big deal." He mumbled and then lifted his head and gave Kendall a challenging look, startling the older teenage boy with a glare. "Isn't that what you did with Katie?"

"That's…different." Kendall hesitated.

"How?" Sydney demanded.

Kendall didn't know how to respond. He knew that Sydney and his siblings had done research, a _lot_ of research about him and his friends. But did that mean that they knew about his dad as well? It always made him angry, thinking about how his father had left them when Katie was so young. Apparently he couldn't handle the stress of having kids, or maybe he didn't love his mother anymore? He wasn't sure. Nor did he really care. Besides, it wasn't like it was difficult for anyone to figure out his parents' story, his dad wasn't there in LA with them, no one ever talked about him (Logan, James, and Carlos made sure never to bring him up), the subject was changed whenever he _was_ talked about, Kati didn't say anything, and everyone acted like he didn't exist.

That was the way that Kendall liked it.

"I don't know how," Kendall replied and then gave a teasing smile. "You're the genius, you tell me."

"Defensive humor," Sydney noted as his eyes narrowed. "Something is bothering you," he said matter-of-fact. "But I'm not going to push you on it; I know that you don't want to talk about it." He moved to get up from the table.

"W-What makes you say that?"

"I was just speculating." Sydney moved to grab his tumbler glass of soda, but accidentally knocked it to the floor. He gasped as the glass shattered, sending shards of glass and soda everywhere. "Oh no," he moved forward to clean it up and then backed away as he pricked one of his fingers. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, I got it." Kendall said as he got up from the table and went to get a rag and a dishtowel. "It's nothing." He heard a whimper and looked up to see Sydney had walked over to him and held out his arms, his head down. "What are you doing?"

"It's alright," Sydney said in a low voice. "I deserve it."

"You deserve what?" Kendall repeated, his heart starting to beat faster.

"My punishment." Sydney replied in a babyish tone. "I deserve to be punished." He repeated, still holding his arms out.

"I'm not going to punish you," Kendall said slowly. Sydney lifted his head up and looked at Kendall, his blue eyes looking a bit haunted. "It was an accident. I knock stuff over all the time, no big deal." Sydney lowered his arms, still looking troubled. "Syd, what's-"

"Hey," Sydney suddenly snapped back to attention, his eyes no longer looking haunted. "Do you want to see some pictures?" He asked. Kendall nodded. "Do you mind if I borrow your laptop?" When Kendall shook his head, Sydney hurried to Kendall's bedroom to grab it.

_That was so weird; _Kendall started to sweep up the shards of glass, being careful to get every single one, so that no one would step on it later. _I know that my mom would be a bit upset that it's broken, but it was an accident, nothing to be so bothered over._ He looked up as Sydney came back out of Kendall's room, carefully holding onto his laptop. _And he sounded weird when he said it, too; like he wasn't completely there. One minute he acts like a nine year old, then a 20 year old genius, and then like he's…I don't know __what__ and then back to being nine years old. _Kendall finished sweeping up the glass and then wiped the soda off of the floor with a rag before he walked over to Sydney, who was waiting patiently on the couch.

"Ok, this is our website" Sydney pulled up a webpage. "I designed most of it myself, and we're always putting new things on there. So far our blog," he pointed to a link in the corner of the screen. "Is the most popular, it's how we interact with our fans the most. Anyway," he moved to the photo gallery. "Here are some pictures; they're my favorites at the moment." He pulled up one of Rhuben. "This is of Rhu from a Photoshoot for a magazine back home called Dolly," he then switched to one of either Patrick or Noah, hanging upside down. Kendall laughed at the picture. "And this is one for Dirt, another magazine at home, but aimed for teenage guys."

"Oh, ok." Kendall nodded at the clarification.

Sydney then scrolled through a lot more pictures; one of Patrick and Riley making funny faces at each other, one of Riley taking a picture at the beach, one of Julius (the eldest Jacksons siblings) doing a handstand on the beach as water surged up around him, one of Julius holding Rhuben up over him with his feet, one of Noah, looking out at the water, a close-up of Rhuben, one of Sydney when he was first learning how to surf (when he was a baby/toddler), one of Sydney wrapped up in a blanket, one of a younger Rhuben (as Sydney explained, pointing to the faint birthmark on her forehead), one of Patrick when he wasn't looking.

And then there was a picture of a beautiful woman in the water, her hands up by her cheeks, caught in mid-laughter. Then there was a picture of a handsome man on the beach; caught in a pose as if he was explaining something to someone. Kendall studied the pictures before looking over at Sydney, who suddenly looked sad.

"Who are they?" Kendall asked gently. He knew who they were, he didn't have to ask.

"It's my Mom and Dad," Sydney replied, his lips pursing slightly. "They loved to go to the beach as much as we did before they died. I think that these were taken before we were born though." He added thoughtfully.

"Those were great," Kendall said as Sydney closed the laptop and pushed it aside. "Who took them?"

"Rhu-Rhu did," Sydney said with a proud smile. "She _loves_ to take pictures and we love to pose for them."

Kendall moved his legs up onto the couch and he turned and faced Sydney fully. The younger boy looked back at him, curiously. "Why'd you want to show me those pictures?" He asked gently.

"So that you and everyone else can see, that even with everything going on, we're still kids that are trying to figure out how to navigate through life." Sydney replied. "Anyway, Gustavo told us that you guys need to write a new song for the version you're putting out in Europe."

"Yeah," Kendall ran a hand through his hair. "He wants us to write it ourselves," he added, suddenly feeling anxious. "Like, completely by ourselves this time, and we haven't really started on it yet, we haven't had any ideas."

"Well, we could help you," Sydney offered. "It's easy to write your own songs once you get the hang of it, you just have to write about what you know and what you've experienced." He added helpfully.

"Thanks, Syd."

"It's what I'm here for."

* * *

><p>When Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie took Sydney to Blazing Phoenix Records later that night, they were all excited to see how their 'rivals' and 'co-workers' performed in the studio. It was one thing being a fan of someone, but it was another seeing how they worked up close. Carlos was a little nervous, though. He knew that Robert didn't like them to be around when his kids were working as they were a distraction, but he relaxed when Ronan explained that Robert was out for the evening and that they were fine to stay.<p>

"Besides, if Riley invited you in, then you must have done something right." He added in a joking tone, motioning for their guests to sit on the couch on the control panel side of the recording studio. "But we're all glad to have you by."

"Where is everyone anyway?" Katie asked as she sat down. "Sydney ran off, like, as soon as we got here."

"He probably went to look for his brothers and sisters in the break room." Ronan replied with a wave of his hand, not bothered by it at all. "He really looks up to them, and because of the age difference between them all, he really likes to stay close with them." He stood up, holding onto a folder. "Now, do you want the grand tour or do you just want to see my office and the view?" He asked as he waved an arm, telling them to follow him. "I'm sure that Gustavo had bitched about it at some point."

"Once or twice." James said with a grin as he elbowed Kendall in the side.

"That's only because he doesn't like that Griffin has a better office than he does," Ronan explained as he walked down the corridor. "It's not far from the room that I usually work in, so that's a bonus." He said as he arrived at his door, where his name was marked on a plaque to the right of the door. He pulled out a key and unlocked the door, turning on the light as he did so. "Ta da." He said as he walked inside.

"Awesome view!" Katie cried as she hurried over to the window behind Ronan's desk. "Especially with all of the lights, since its dark out."

"That's my favorite time of day to look out," Ronan agreed as he set the folder down on his desk. He turned around and noticed that Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James were looking at the Gold and Platinum records that lined the walls. "Don't worry guys; soon your CDs are going to be up all over Gustavo's office."

"I doubt it'll be in his office," James said as he shook his head. "That guy is so vain about his stuff that he'd probably just stick us in the bathroom."

"Look who's talking." Logan replied, joking around a little bit. He then turned his attention to the other pictures that were in the room. There was one of him and others that were obvious his family, from the different stages of him growing up. But he couldn't help but notice that a majority of them were of the DarkElements. "You have a lot of pictures." He stated.

"Yeah, my Mom thought it would be a good idea if I had lots of pictures around," Ronan said with a roll of his eyes. "To, and I quote, to prove that I'm a family man so I can settle down and start giving her grandkids." He laughed as he rolled up the sleeves on his button down shirt, loosening his tie.

"You don't seem the settle down type." Katie said frankly.

"Yes and No," Ronan shrugged. "I would like to have a family, but I'm not sure if stopping what I'm doing now is worth it to do that. I'd probably make a compromise."

"You have a lot of pictures of the Jacksons on your wall." Carlos blurted and then shrank in on himself defensively as Kendall, Logan, and James shushed him, hitting him on the arms and back of the head. "What? I was just _saying_."

"It's alright," Ronan reassured him. "They're pretty much the only band that I work with," Ronan explained as his eyes scanned the picture. "For right now anyway, like Gustavo is doing with you guys. They were the first band that I signed and they've been giving me so much success that I haven't thought of branching out yet, it's not the right time." He pointed to a picture of the five Jacksons when they were younger, all holding onto pens and leaning over a table, to get into frame. "That was the day that they first officially signed to my company."

"And this?" Kendall motioned to a picture of Ronan, the DarkElements, and whom he recognized as Julius, all grinning proudly as they sat on a couch. "What was this for?"

"That was the day that we heard that their first single, _It's Been a Summer_ got to number one." Ronan replied.

"How did you know that you wanted to sign them?" James asked. He looked a bit insecure. If they were that successful with all of their hard work and were being recognized for it, he wondered if it were possible that he and his friends were going to get that big. He wanted to do everything that he set out to do, but he knew that life didn't work that way. He didn't want to have to crawl back to Minnesota and explain he, indeed, was a Big Time Loser.

"Well, I first heard them singing when I was at the mall getting lunch, back when I was twenty-five." Ronan started, crossing his arms over his chest. "And after hearing them sing, I talked to their dad, Robert, and he agreed to do a bit of a test-trial with me. So we did some demos, sent it out, got good feedback, and then I signed them. We started out doing heavy pop music and then changed to rock and that's where we are today." He then stood up straight. "My bad, I didn't answer your question. Well, they're hard workers, so that's a plus, but they all have an amazing vocal range although they each have their own talents. Riley has a really powerful voice, Rhuben can hold out a note longer than her siblings, Patrick can hit really high and really low notes when needed, Noah can pick up our pick out a melody very quickly, and Sydney can put a lot of emotion into his work."

"Wow, it's no wonder you guys are such a success." James said with a nod to his friends. "We know that you're going to do great here."

"And so are you guys," Ronan reassured him. "Listen, if there's anything that you guys ever need, even if you just want to talk about the pressures of this industry or whatever, you can talk to me." He turned to Katie. "That goes for you, too. I mean it, whatever you need; I'll be here to listen."

"Thanks Mr. McGuire." Carlos said with a grateful smile.

"Ronan, please." Ronan corrected him easily before looking at his watch. "We should be getting started, come on." They left the room and he closed and locked the door behind them before they headed back to the recording studio. He laughed when they walked into the room and noticed the DarkElements singing loudly to Ride Wit Me by Nelly as Riley and Patrick played it on acoustic guitars. "Looks like I just missed a good jam session." He said as he walked into the room.

"You always seem to." Rhuben replied and then reached out and lightly hit him on the arm, getting his attention. "So, guess what?"

"What?" Ronan asked as he sat down in his chair, rolling over to the sound board.

"I got an A- on my math test." Rhuben replied and then blushed a little as Ronan let out a sound of excitement. "I mean, Logan helped me study for it, but I think I finally understand it."

"Good for you, I know that it was a hard concept for you to grasp." Ronan turned and grabbed a few notepads off of the floor. "I'm proud of you." He added and then righted himself, turning to his clients. "Alright, do you want to get started on _Too Close For Comfort?_"

"Sure," Riley agreed with a nod. "But I want to talk to Logie-Bear first." She said and then chuckled as Logan winced at the nickname, causing Carlos to laugh loudly and start poking him in the sides.

"Riles-"Ronan started.

"Two seconds, I promise." She said and stood up and walked over to Logan, grabbing onto his arm and walking him to the corner of the room. "Listen, I just wanted to be sure that you didn't say anyt-"

"I didn't say anything," Logan interrupted, suddenly looking tired. "I would never, because I promised." He let out a pained sigh. "I don't know how much longer I can hold it in though. I mean, look at Syd, the whole side of his face is bruised."

"I'm aware of that," Riley said calmly, although her cheeks tinged a light red. "And that was a mistake that could have easily been avoided but we slip up." She gave a one-shouldered shrug. "It happens. But we do know what we're doing; you're just going to have to trust us."

"You know I do." Logan insisted.

"I know," Riley said with a nod. "And listen," she reached out and smiled softly as she ruffled Logan's hair. "Thanks for worrying about us so much. You're a great friend, you know?" Logan gave a small smile back and she leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "But we can handle it. And if you do tell, I'll kill you," She gave his arms a squeeze before heading into the studio with her siblings.

Logan walked back over to the couch and sat down heavily as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"Are we working on harmonies or just working out the whole thing?" Sydney asked as they all grabbed their headphones and stood in a row, lyric sheets sitting on stands in front of them. Riley and Rhuben were standing on the ends of their line, then Patrick and Noah, and then in the middle was Sydney, who was standing on a small footstool to reach his microphone.

"Whole thing, all together," Ronan replied as he leaned forward and pushed the intercom button so he could hear them in the booth. "Then we'll go back later to work on your roles individually, alright?"

"Got it." The five voices replied.

Logan sat back and listened along with his friends as the backing track came in on the song, and the Jacksons waited for their cue to start singing. He was there, listening, but he wasn't completely concentrating on the song. Not when Patrick sang his verse, not when they did the chorus, not when Noah did his verse (although he did agree with his friends' whispers, it was amazing to know that a boy that talked so softly could sing so well), he knew that it was all very good. He hadn't heard a song of theirs that he hadn't likes, so far, but he couldn't help but think about what they were going to when they got home. Where they going to a father that was happy and in a good mood or would they go home to the monster that was going to hurt them like he seemed to do more often than any of them would have liked?

He didn't snap to attention until Sydney had started in on his own verse.

"All this time you've been telling me lies, hidden in bags that are under your eyes." He sang, doing what Ronan credited him for before, putting emotion into the song. As he sang, his moved his hand up to the swollen part of his face and lightly touched it, as if experiencing that moment in his head again. "And when I asked you I knew I was right."

Then it was Riley's turn, her eyes were hard and she looked like she was about to start crying. "But if you turn your back on me now, when I need you most, but you chose to let me down, down, down."

Rhuben came up last, holding her hands to the sides of her head, pushing the headphones closer over her ears as she sang. Her teeth were close to being gritted together. "Won't you think about what you're about to do to me and back down..." Logan's eyes moved over to Ronan. He was watching them, listening at the same time, moving different knobs and buttons on the sound panel every now and then. Logan then looked over at his friends, they looked impressed and a bit…Logan wasn't sure what the other emotion was, but it was there.

"Was I invading in on your secrets?" Sydney started up once more. "Was I too close for comfort? You're pushing me out, when I wanted in."

"What was I just about to discover?" Rhuben came in, using more power to her voice this time, her siblings coming in periodically. "I got too close for comfort; you're pushing me out, when I'm wanting in. Yeah yeah yeah."

They all then came together on the chorus of the song, "Was I invading in on your secrets? Was I too close for comfort? You're pushing me out, when I wanted in. What was I just about to discover? When I got too close for comfort, driving you home I guess I'll never know..." The Jacksons trailed off as the guitars and drums played their last note.

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie clapped as the song ended and the Jacksons backed away from their microphones, moving their headphones off of their ears as they talked quietly to each other and got some water. Rhuben was saying something to them as she picked up her lyric sheet and pointed to it, causing her siblings to crowd around her. Logan slowly stopped clapping, everything coming into focus. He knew that song was about him, part of it was. He just knew it. The words about telling the secret, something that was going to be discovered. There was no way that it wasn't about him. It showed that they were still scared that he was going to say something.

"Uh, Ronan?" Logan asked, grabbing the older man's attention.

Ronan turned around in his chair, his green eyes trained on Logan, silently asking what he needed. Logan looked back at him, Ronan's words echoing through his head. He could tell that Ronan really meant what he said; when he said that the boys could come talk to him when he needed it. But was it worth it? He looked over at Riley and Rhuben and through about their situation. If he told someone, he wouldn't only be losing two of his best friends; one would never speak to him again, another threatened bodily harm, and then he could potentially be the one that split their family up. He didn't know if he could live with that guilt. Logan didn't have to turn around to know that Kendall, James, Carlos, and Katie were watching his back, wondering what it was that he had to say.

Did they guess what he was going to say as well?

He wasn't sure, and he wasn't going to risk it.

"Never mind," Logan sighed and shook his head. "It's nothing." He turned to go back to his seat and he caught Sydney's eye. Sydney looked at him, without blinking, looking a little sad. But then he looked away when Patrick said something to him, pointing to his lyric sheet. Logan went back to his seat and put his face in his hands, feeling sick.

"Hey, Logie, are you ok?" Kendall asked, lightly resting his hand on Logan's shoulder.

"I'm fine." Logan managed to choke out. _I'm stuck between letting my friends get hurt even more or sitting back and letting them handle it. Other than that, I'm freaking fine._

"Ok, now let's work on _Somewhere I Belong_ and leave _Too Close for Comfort_ behind for a bit. You guys have been working on that one for a while now and I still think that you need to tighten up towards the end." Ronan said as he shifted a few papers in front of him. He picked up a pen and started to write down on a notepad. "Riles, at your point of the song, you go a little flat at the end, I know that it sounds like it should go that way, but you need to be spot on. Other than that, you did great." Riley nodded as she adjusted her headphones. "Rhu, you came in a bit too early, the emotion you put into it was amazing, like usual." Rhuben smiled, obviously pleased at the praise. "Patrick, you might want to start taking care of your voice, because I heard it crack at some points." Patrick merely shrugged. "Noah, you need to start a bit deeper at the beginning and then build you way up, and Syd, you need to be a bit quieter on your second part if you want the point to come across there."

Ronan pushed that notepad away and grabbed another one. "Other than that, all of you guys did great on the song; we might have to do a few more takes of it." He tapped his pen against the pad. "Now, for Somewhere I Belong, what's the thought behind it?" He turned to the boys and Katie to explain. "We write down the thoughts for each song as we record them, so the ones that we decided to use as a single or on the CD, we can put the idea in the album booklet. That way we'll have it ahead of time and not scramble for it later."

They all nodded. It made sense the way that he put it. They could see how the DarkElements were so successful, they got criticism and praise and helped Ronan out with his job, they weren't yelled at, at all. They were dealed with patiently.

"Basically what every teenage, or kid goes through," Patrick said, his headphones around his neck. He took a sip of water before re-capping it and putting it down on the floor. "Looking for that one thing that you're good at, being told that you're not worth anything and looking for where you belong in life."

"Got it." Ronan replied with a nod.

Logan watched him for a few moments; he didn't write at first, he was obviously thinking about something. He then let out a breath and started to write on the notepad before he lifted his head and started to move a few knobs on the mother board. He knew that Ronan knew something that he wasn't saying.

"Hey Ronan, do you guys usually do it where you record vocals and music at the same time?" James asked, stretching his legs and crossing them. "Or do you do it at the same time?"

"It really depends on the sound that we want and how authentic it should sound," Ronan replied as he turned in his seat, patiently. "For example, some songs that they've done, at the end if you turn up the volume, you can hear them laughing or talking about something random at the end. I decided to leave it there because you can tell who they really are as a person through their music and through them at the end."

"What about for this song?" Kendall asked.

"For this one, we decided to do it separately," Ronan replied. "Since it's a heavier…darker song, it's better to get their emotion through it, rather than have it drowned out by their instruments."

"When this began," Sydney started off the song.

"I had nothing to say and I get lost in the nothingness inside of me." Patrick came in, putting his face close to the shield over the microphone. His face was set in intense concentration as he looked down at the lyric sheet in front of him.

"I was confused," Riley sang next.

"And I let it all out to find that I'm not the only person with these things in mind

"Inside of me." Rhuben came in next.

"But all that they can see the words revealed is the only real thing that I've got left to feel."

"Nothing to lose." Riley, Rhuben, and Sydney came together.

"Just stuck, hollow and alone, and the fault is my own, and the fault is my own." Patrick thumped his chest a few times, getting in on the song as the chorus came up. He looked out at his friends as they watched; obviously enamored with being able to watch them record.

"I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real. I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long."

"Erase all the pain till it's gone." Patrick quickly switched from singing the chorus to half-sing, half-speak the on line.

"I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real. I wanna find something I've wanted all along; Somewhere I belong."

"And I've got nothing to say, I can't believe I didn't fall right down on my face." Noah sang, taking over Patrick's rapping part as Sydney, Riley, and Rhuben interjected with their own lines, much like the first verse. "(I was confused). Looking everywhere only to find that it's not the way I had imagined it all in my mind. (So what am I). What do I have but negativity, 'cause I can't justify the way, everyone is looking at me. (Nothing to lose). Nothing to gain, hollow and alone, and the fault is my own, and the fault is my own."

"I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real. I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long. Erase all the pain till it's gone. I wanna heal; I wanna feel like I'm close to something real. I wanna find something I've wanted all along; Somewhere I belong."

"I will never know myself until I do this on my own, and I will never feel anything else, until my wounds are healed. I will never be anything till I break away from me. I will break away, I'll find myself today." Riley, Rhuben, and Sydney sang, all closing their eyes and using as much effort and emotion as they could as the song

"I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real. I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long. Erase all the pain till it's gone. I wanna heal; I wanna feel like I'm close to something real. I wanna find something I've wanted all along; Somewhere I belong. I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm somewhere I belong. I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm somewhere I belong. Somewhere I belong."

Kendall suddenly had an epiphany as Ronan pushed a button on the switchboard and started to talk to his band again. James, Carlos, and Katie chattered to each other about the song that they had just heard; Logan was unusually quiet. He looked a little green, actually. Kendall hardly noticed as Ronan motioned for the guys and Katie to go into the recording area as well, to talk to the band and to see how everything was set up. _He said that they're well known for doing songs about things that people can relate to or things that they have felt or experienced. Is that for __every__ one of their songs or just these? _Kendall reached out and grabbed onto his sister's shoulder, stopping her from entering the recording area.

"Katie?" Kendall leaned towards his sister and motioned for her to do the same, speaking quietly so he didn't disturb Ronan or the others while they were at work. "Do you still have their CDs back at the apartment?" He asked.

"Yeah," Katie nodded. "I was planning on ordering more copies, so they could sign them and I could make some big bucks off of it." Her mischievous grin faded when she noticed how serious her brother was. He never really got that serious, he always joked with her about the fact that she was going to take over LA one day, but now, he was just quiet. She knew that something was bothering him. "What's wrong?"

"I need to borrow them." Kendall said after a minute. "I just want to check something."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **This one was a very long chapter, but I hope that you guys liked it. I'm on Fall Break tomorrow, so I'm gonna update my SLOD story and I _might_ upload my new Kiley fic, _Someone Like You _as well, but I haven't decided yet.

For those of you that want to see the pictures I was talking about, go here: imageshack . us /g/1/ 9784566/ without the spaces. Of course they're not exactly what DE looks like (you can tell that the eye/hair color aren't the same) but it's the poses and stuff I want you to think about while looking at it.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

-Riles


	26. When To Confront Your Fears

**.:Chapter Twenty-Six – When To Confront Your Fears:.**

_"Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you." ~Robert Kioysaki_

* * *

><p>Kendall couldn't deny it anymore.<p>

He knew the truth.

He knew that the Jacksons were being abused.

After he, Logan, James, Carlos, and Katie had gotten back from Blazing Phoenix Records; listening to the DarkElements record, he had taken Katie's copies of the DarkElements' CDs and went into his room, listening to each of them on his CD player. As he listened to them from their first CD to their latest, listening as the songs went from more pop/upbeat songs to more rock/darker songs, he looked at the lyrics that were presented in the CD booklets as well as to the 'thank yous' in each one. He was slightly surprised to find that they had tanked Robert in each and every one of their booklets; there were short blurbs here and there. But the thank you that they gave to Ronan usually spanned a paragraph long in comparison. It was when he looked at the lyrics to the CDs that he started to take notes on them.

There was really nothing on _DarkElements_, but on One _Step Closer, Enigma_, and _Defy You_, there were plenty of songs that he was able to makes note son. On _One Step Closer_, the songs …To Be Loved, One Step Closer, Violence, Hold On, and I'm Not Okay stuck out to him. On _Enigma_ it was Numb, Rooftops, Breaking the Habit, and Blue and Yellow that stuck out the most. On _Defy You_, it was almost the whole CD, but for that CD it was Crawling, Defy You, Face Down, Welcome to My Life, Scars, and Savin' Me that got him. Then he thought about the songs that he had heard them perform that night for their new CD _Too Close for Comfort_ _(_that the DarkElements had officially named the night before), that they were working on. Somewhere I Belong was a no brainer, and then there was Broken, Too Close for Comfort, and Easier to Run.

He took down notes on all of those songs, writing down the specific lyrics and the symbols behind it as well as to the meanings that were written about each song in the booklet. Most of them alluded back to the fact that they were things that they had experienced and that it was something that they knew that a lot of teenagers would relate to, from problems with their parents, to just growing up in general.

He skipped dinner that night and waited until Logan went to sleep before he pulled out his laptop and decided to do an even more thorough search. He looked through videos of them, and through interviews, before looking to see what comments they had gotten on some of those things as well as their website. Ironically enough, there were people that said that their music and what they were portraying had 'saved them' from their abuse or from their self-harm.

Finally deciding that what he was doing was going to help rather than hurt, Kendall opened up a search engine and typed in four words.

**Signs of Child Abuse**

A lot of results came up, but when he found a link for the list of symptoms of child abuse, he clicked on it immediately, and started reading the different symptoms.

"Frequent injuries or unexplained bruises," Kendall murmured to himself and snorted. "Yeah, that's definitely something that they have a lot of." He continued reading. "Bad hygiene…nah, they have good hygiene. Shies away from touch? Yep. Wears inappropriate clothing to cover up bruises? Long sleeves in the summer." He yawned and rubbed his face, his eyes burning as he continued to look through other sites. "Extreme aggressiveness or withdrawal?" He thought back to when Riley called him a 'large-eyebrowed-freak' and closed his eyes briefly. He wondered how he didn't think of it there, but only chalked it up to the fact that he was too preoccupied with being confused as to why she didn't like him. "That definitely describes Riley and Sydney. Too eager-to-please or just doesn't care? Yep. Reluctance to go home? Yep. Appears frightened of their parents? Yep. Antisocial behavior? Yep. Seems very clingy or very detached? Yep. Rarely seen with their parents?" Kendall through hard about that one, it was true, unless there was something that Robert had to be directly involved with, he wasn't around his kids, it was usually Ronan that was there. "Is always wary and on the lookout? Yep. Overreacts to small mistakes? Yep."

Kendall slowly closed his laptop. It was all true. Part of him was actually impressed; that they hid it so long and that they hid it so well. It made sense as to how they were able to lie so easily, not that he could even tell when they _were_ lying. They could probably tell him that they _weren't_ related and he would believe them.

They were just that convincing.

Kendall had then gone to a restless sleep. His dreams were plagued with them being hurt; there was screaming, and the sound of police sirens. He felt cold all over and couldn't stop shaking. He got so little sleep that he ended up waking up late. But he didn't bother to get out of the bed, he just laid there, his hands over his face, breathing steadily, trying to figure out what to do.

An hour later, Kendall removed his hands from his face and let out a deep breath. He sat up and reached over to his bedside table and grabbed his phone off of it. He flipped through the contacts list and stopped on a name, staring at it on the screen. He let out another deep breath and then pressed the call button and moved the phone to his ear. His heart thudded against his rib-cage as he waited for the person to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Kendall greeted as the accented voice reached his ears. "Rhuben, its Kendall."

"I know, I have caller ID." Rhuben replied after a second of silence. He could practically see her rolling her eyes, hearing the 'duh' tone in her voice. Kendall's hand was shaking at this point. He went back and forth, trying to decide whether or not he could go through with it. Should he hang up or ask what he wanted to know? "Kendall? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here." Kendall spoke up quickly, turning so his feet were placed on the floor. He reached his left hand up to his mouth and started to lightly chew on his nails. He had always been a nail-biter, especially when he got nervous. His mother tried to get him to stop, she tried every idea in the book, and it worked for a while. But it didn't cure him completely, now he did it when he was nervous. "I was just wondering if we were still on for my lesson today." He asked.

"Uh," She paused. "Hold on." There was a shuffling sound and then he could hear her moving across the room. Kendall listened as there was silence, a couple of whispers, and then shuffling again. "It shouldn't be a problem. It'd be a good warm-up for our show tonight."

"Great, thanks." Kendall said without much enthusiasm. _That part went over well, now all you have to do is get there and…do the hard part._ "Um, there's something else that I-"

"One sec." Rhuben interrupted him quickly, lowering her voice. "I think my dad's home." There was silence; in the background Kendall could hear the TV blaring.

"Hi…"

If he strained to hear, he could just make out her voice nervously greeting her father. Silence met her greeting. Kendall tried harder to listen, to hear what was being said, but his blood started to pound in his ears, making it hard for him to distinguish anything. He could hear Rhuben gulp lightly.

"Dad?"

"What. Were. You. Thinking." Each word was punctuated with cold precision; Kendall immediately recognized it as Robert's voice.

"What do you mean?" Rhuben asked in a small voice. It was the first and only time that Kendall heard her speaking so quietly, so…he couldn't explain it. It just didn't sound like her.

"You've always been a pain in my ass. I've been too easy on you."

"Please. Not now" She then raised her voice. "Get away from me! Let go of me!"

"You're so stupid."

Kendall jumped at the sound of a slap. His eyes widened and he pressed the phone against his ear as hard as he could. He opened his mouth, ready to yell something, but was surprised to find that he could find his voice. He couldn't say anything. He could only sit there and listen as smack after smack resounded through the phone. Kendall sat there and listened as Robert continued to rain attacks down on her body. He couldn't hear her crying out anymore, she probably was so used to it; knowing that if she said anything it would just get worse. The idea flashed through Kendall's mind and almost made him sick; he couldn't think about how long this could have been happening to his friends. Not now; now that he knew the truth.

Finally, he could hear footsteps walking away. Kendall parted his lips. "Rhuben?" He licked his lips, trying to get his voice above a whisper. Finally, he found his voice, and started to yell into the phone. "Hello? Rhuben? Hello? Are you okay!"

"Hello?" Rhuben's voice sounded normal, like nothing had just happened.

"Rhuben," Kendall's hand started to ache as he held the phone in his tight grip."What was that?"

"What was what? Oh!" She tried to laugh, but it sounded like she was choking. "I must have left the TV on too loud. What did you hear? Whatever it was, I can assure you, my life is 'not' as interesting as an episode of "The Long Way Home"."

"Rhuben-"

"Family problems, Kendall. My dad's mad. No big thing."

"The things he said-" Kendall started.

"I gotta go!" Rhuben interrupted, hanging up.

Kendall slowly hung up his phone, dropping it onto the bed next to him. His hands were shaking; a cold sweat had broken out on his forehead. Slowly, almost robotically, he got to his feet and got dressed before walking out to the main area of apartment 2J. His green eyes scanned the area and he relaxed a little when he realized that his mother wasn't there. He wasn't sure what he would do if she was there and he had to say it to her.

"Hey Kendall," James greeted when he spotted him. "You've been sleeping for a _long_ time. Jo called you, like, twenty times." He added, pointing over to the apartment's main phone. "Dude, I'd call her back, she's probably super pissed at you right now."

"Yeah, I'll call her later." Kendall said dismissively.

Carlos noticed his tone and looked up as well. "Dude, are you ok?" He asked and then peered closely at him. He got up from the couch and walked over to Kendall, leaning into his face. "You look _terrible_!"

"Carlos!" Logan admonished.

"I mean, you have bags under your eyes and you look like you haven't slept in _years_." Carlos continued.

"Carlos!" Logan said louder, finally getting the helmet-clad boy to clam up. Carlos looked over at Kendall and muttered a weak apology. Logan noticed that Kendall's eyes were trained on him. His eyes shifted back and forth and he slowly put down his textbook. "What?"

"Just answer me this one question," Kendall said quietly, walking closer to Logan. "Did you know?"

"Did I know what?" Logan asked back.

"Are you ok, Big Brother?" Katie asked, looking at Kendall with concern. She frowned and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "You've been out of it since yesterday after we got back from the record company. Did something-"

"Did you know?" Kendall repeated, forcefully.

Logan looked like he was going to ask Kendall what he was talking about, again, but then his eyes softened. His shoulders slumped and he moved the textbook off of his lap and onto the couch beside him. He licked his lips and then looked right at Kendall with his brown eyes. "Yes, I knew."

"Knew what?" Katie demanded.

Kendall finally looked down at her. "Katie, maybe you should go and-"

"No!" Katie said firmly, shocking Kendall. "If there's something going on, I want to know what it is!" Kendall looked like he wanted to protest, but she stomped her foot on the ground. "Kendall, tell me."

Kendall let out a sigh and then turned back to Logan. "We know…that the Jacksons are being abused."

James immediately got to his feet and he, Carlos, and Logan filled the circled that Kendall and Katie had started. "Are you absolutely sure about that?" He asked, placing a hand on Kendall's shoulder. He started to squeeze his shoulder tightly. "Are you _sure?_"

"How can I _not_ be sure?" Kendall replied. "I researched it all night long, and I know that you guys thought about it too." He added to James and Carlos.

"What does that mean?" Katie demanded.

"I _had_ thought that they were acting funny," Carlos said as he lightly kicked at the ground. "I mean, we've all seen the way that they seem to flinch whenever someone moves their arm, they don't want to go home, and they always have an excuse for _something_." He shook his head and lifted his helmet from his head. "I just…I didn't let myself think that it was true."

"What does that mean?" Katie repeated.

"It means, Katie," James sat down on the back of the couch and put an arm around Katie's shoulders, pulling her close to his side as he looked at her seriously. He glanced at the other boys before looking back at Katie. "It means that Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney are being hurt." He said as gently as possible. Katie looked confused. "The bruises that they had didn't come from the accidents or other excuses that they came up with. They came from their father."

Katie's eyes widened as she let what they had just told her sink in. It _did_ make sense. Everything made sense, it even made sense that Logan knew, since he had been acting weird and defending them about it. She knew that if he didn't say anything about it before, there was a reason for it, Logan was always like that. But she was mad at him in part, because he _had _kept something like that a secret. She was angrier at the fact that it was all happening to some of the most interesting people that she met. Some of the better friends that she was starting to have, even though Patrick _did_ say that they weren't great at making friends. It would explain why they were always so hesitant to do things with them or why they tried to stay away from them.

She briefly wondered if Lizzie, Jo, Camille, or Stephanie knew but figured that if they knew about it, then they would have said something.

"Why do you think they haven't said anything about it?" Carlos asked, sounding like he wanted to cry or punch someone in the face. "They kept it a secret for so long."

"They're afraid of being split up and being adopted by different people," Logan explained with a sigh. "That's why they haven't said anything." He crossed his arms over his chest. "That's why _I _haven't said anything."

"That's not the worst part," Kendall said. "I called Rhu to ask if we were going to have our private lesson today, and…I think I heard her abusing her over the phone."

"Fuck!" James slapped his hands on the back of the couch.

It made Katie jump.

"What are we going to do, Kendall?" Katie asked, turning to her big brother. She knew that he would know what to do. But as she looked at him, she was actually scared that for the first time in his life, he looked completely clueless as to what to do. "We have to tell someone. But…I don't want them to be taken away either."

"I don't want that either." Carlos said in almost a whisper.

"Kendall, we have to tell mom." Katie said as she turned to Kendall. Tears started to fall down her cheeks; she couldn't hold them back anymore. "They have to be ok; they can't be with that guy anymore." She threw her arms around Kendall's waist and hugged him tightly. "We have to tell someone, we have to tell mom."

"I know," Kendall hugged her back, bending down and lifting her up into his arms as he hugged her back, rubbing her back gently. "I know. Mom will know what to do." He started to talk to the guys. "I don't think that we have any choice left, we have to tell her."

Logan, Carlos, and James nodded in reply.

* * *

><p>Mrs. Knight took a deep breath before reaching out and knocking on Ronan's office door. They had agreed that they were going to meet up to talk about the upcoming tour that their two bands were going to go on, but Kacy was using that as a cover. Her motherly instincts were telling her that things were going to go terribly wrong if they didn't talk about the elephant in the room soon. She could see that the boys and Katie were all way when talking about the Jacksons when she casually tried to get something out of them, especially after they got back from the record company the night before. She knew that it couldn't wait any longer. Mrs. Knight waited until she heard his voice tell her to come in before opening the door and walking inside, closing it behind her. Ronan turned away from his computer and then regarded her with a surprised, yet warm smile.<p>

"Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked and then looked at his watch. "So early," he added.

"We have to talk," Mrs. Knight interrupted, taking the seat across from his desk. "About Robert, about everything. We have to call social services now." She said, immediately getting Ronan's attention. "They have a show tonight, and I can't explain it, but I've had this bad feeling all day that something is going to happen if they do that show."

"Kace, what-"

"I think that the kids know as well, or that they're suspicious," Mrs. Knight continued, not allowing him to get a word out. "I know that we said that we were going to talk about the tours that the bands were going to go on, but I only said that so I could meet with you without having to worry about everyone wanting to come too and…" she shook her head. "I don't know, I guess I'm not thinking straight."

"Whoa, calm down." Ronan held up his hands. "It's a good thing that you came by," Ronan said, his happy demeanor slowly turning to one of complete seriousness. "I was thinking the same thing; I couldn't wait anymore about talking to someone about what was going on." He shut down his computer and then turned back to her again. "What suddenly brought this up?"

"The boys and Katie, talking about their trip to your company last night," Mrs. Knight said, calming down a little bit. "There were just a few things that didn't sit right with me." She cleared her throat. "They said something about you deciding not to work with other bands, because of the success that you have with the Jacksons." She stared hard at Ronan. "He had something to do with that, didn't he?"

Ronan let out a snorting laugh. "They actually believed that?" he asked, confirming Mrs. Knight's suspicions. "I didn't know that I could lie so well." He shook his head 'no' and rolled his eyes before looking angry again. "It's not even that; I've been getting so much flack for only working with them, and while I love working with them, it's not even worth it."

"What isn't?" Mrs. Knight asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Keep a secret?" Ronan turned to face her and she nodded. "I don't only work with the Jacksons because I like to or because of the success they bring me. That would be selfish and I would only be using them if that were the reason why. It's because I'm _not allowed_ to work with anyone else. Robert made it perfectly clear that when contracts were signed that I was not allowed to work with any other band while I was working with his, they had to be my _main_ focus. I couldn't say 'no' because he threatened me with my job if I didn't agree with it. In some ways, it's a blessing and a curse. I always knew that there was something behind that part of my contract, but at the time I didn't question it. After a few years and my suspicions grew, I figured it out."

Mrs. Knight slowly nodded, understanding what he was saying perfectly. "Did you tell Gustavo and Kelly?"

"Not until you and I talked to them, no," Ronan said and then leaned over, grabbing the phone that was sitting on his desk. "But, you're right; I think it's time that we finally do something about this. No more waiting. No more letting them live in fear." He looked up at Mrs. Knight as he dialed. "Do you know how many times I had to stop recording because Sydney would be crying uncontrollably? I didn't know that it was because in his mind he regressed momentarily due to his abuse, I always thought that it was because of the stress. But I'm sure that's it too." He slowly shook his head.

Mrs. Knight watched as he started to move his hand to the phone to dial again, but then froze, his hand out. She studied him as he lowered his elbow to the desk and continued to stare at the phone, an expression of intense sadness sliding onto his face.

"Ronan?" She asked.

"Mhm." He didn't look at her.

"That day what I drove Riley to your apartment, Robert left her there, didn't he?" She asked.

"Most likely," Ronan agreed. "There were days where he would just dump them at my apartment and leave them there for a couple of days."

"When Carlos found them in the lobby of the hotel?" Mrs. Knight asked. "Back when we were in New York?"

"He probably kicked them out of the room and they slept there all night long." Ronan shook his head. "It's not the first time." He cracked his knuckles. "I would try to talk to him about it, like when we were doing that photo shoot, but then he would threaten me and I would back down. I especially feel bad for Riles and Rhubes, they've spent so much time taking care of their brothers from this, I can't think about what they're feeling."

"I can't think about how Patrick, Noah, and Sydney feel," Mrs. Knight agreed. "Especially with Sydney being so young. And then Patrick and Noah wanting to protect him as well as their sisters." She paused. "That explains the nightmare that Sydney had when they slept over." She took a deep breath and put her hands in her lap. "Go ahead and call, we need to do this. We have to help them."

"Right," Ronan dialed the phone and put it to his ear. He only had to wait a few seconds before Linda Walker answered the phone. "Yes, my name is Ronan McGuire, I don't know if you remember me; I'm sitting here with my friend Kacy Knight." Ronan said into the phone. "I've met you a couple of times, Linda, but there's something that you have to know, we believe that Robert is abusing his kids."

"That's a pretty serious accusation, Mr. McGuire." Linda replied slowly. "But it sounds like you've had this suspicion for a while." There was something to her tone, a hard edge that Ronan could hear. Mrs. Knight waved a hand at him and Ronan nodded back before putting the phone on speaker.

"Yes, I have, I have some evidence; pictures, if that's what you need." Ronan said quickly. "I have a lot of notes that I've taken as well as Kacy has her own things that she's noticed." He swallowed thickly. "We believe that Robert has been doing this for a long time and it needs to stop."

"You and me both, Mr. McGuire, it's, honestly, the only reason that I've been looking at their case so closely." Linda replied before there was a sound of shuffling paper over the phone. "Now, if you can tell me _everything_ you think I need to know, I think we have a case here."

"Great," Ronan let out a sigh of relief. "Let me just get some things together and I'll call you right back." He hung up the phone and turned to Mrs. Knight with a warm smile. "Finally something is being done about this. I told you that everything was going to be ok."

Mrs. Knight nodded quietly.

"What's wrong?" Ronan asked.

"It's just…" Mrs. Knight shook her head. "I've gone out on a few dates with this guy and…I didn't think that he was doing anything wrong. I never knew about it until you told me the things to look out for. And then when we were talking to Gustavo and Kelly and things were spelled out for us there-"

"You can't possibly be telling me that you think that this is your fault." Ronan said with a surprised snort. "If anyone should feel guilty, it's me. I mean, I've had suspicions for years, and I didn't say anything. I tried talking to them, we have a relationship where we can tell each other _anything_ and they couldn't tell me this."

"I couldn't help but feel terrible, knowing that I could have easily brought him around my own kids." Mrs. Knight replied. She pushed her hair out of her face with both hands. "God, I just can't think about that."

"Welcome to the pity party," Ronan said with a non-humorous laugh. "Both of us can find things that we think we can put on ourselves when it was really him that is the culprit behind this whole thing." He suddenly paused, looking thoughtful. "Maybe I should hold off on telling Gustavo," he murmured. Mrs. Knight gave him a weird look. "I'll tell Kelly, just not Gustavo, I don't want a murder case on my hands."

"So, are we going to call the police?" Mrs. Knight asked anxiously.

"Not unless Linda feels that they're in immediate danger," Ronan said with a bitter smile. "I've tried before, they see it as a sense of a parents' own choice of how they discipline their kids. He's had the police called on him so many times before; it makes me sick at how he continuously got away with this." His hands clenched into fists. "I can't believe he did this to my kids."

Mrs. Knight gave him a sympathetic smile, but didn't reply. She could tell by looking at him that he wasn't going to get over this. It must have been really bad for him; having worked with them for almost ten years, he had seen everything that Robert had done to make sure that they were a good band. He had seen everything that they had to sacrifice to make it to where they were. How could he have felt, holding all of his suspicions back and working with them under a manager that treated people badly? She couldn't even being to imagine what that felt like and how Ronan was _really _feeling.

The two sat in silence for a few moments. It was broken by Mrs. Knight's phone ringing. She grabbed her purse off of the ground and started to frantically dig through it, trying to find it before it stopped ringing. Finally, she pulled the phone out of her bag with a flourish and looked at the screen.

"It's Kendall," she said, with a hint of worry. "I hope nothing's wrong, I haven't been gone long enough for them to get into trouble already." Ronan risked a half smile as she answered the phone. "Kendall? Is everything ok, honey?"

"Mom," Kendall replied slowly. "There's something we need to tell you."

* * *

><p>"Kendall hasn't called you back yet?"<p>

Jo shook her head, staring down at the phone that was sitting on her bed in front of her. "No," she groaned and then raised her eyes to look at Camille and Stephanie, who gave her sympathetic looks in reply. "It's been all day, we're leaving to go to the Jacksons's show in ten minutes too," she looked down at the cute pink dress she had chosen. "And he hasn't called me all day!"

"I don't mean to be a stick-in-the-mud, Jo," Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "But why don't _you _go to his apartment? Aren't you the one that keeps saying that girls shouldn't always wait around for guys and all that?" She raised an arm in the air. "You're only a few floors away for god's sake!"

"Yes," Jo admitted. "And I _would_ go down and talk to him, but he should be the one that's making the effort." She said stubbornly. "I can't be the one that's always working at this relationship, he had to work too. He's my boyfriend for god's sake."

"Maybe something came up, then." Stephanie suggested.

"Maybe," Jo replied skeptically. She turned to Camille, who seemed deep in thought. "Have you talked to Logan?"

"No," Camille shook her head, her wavy brown hair hitting her in the face as she did so. "But we made this agreement that we wouldn't talk until we go to the show," she grinned. "To hold some mystery before we go on our date."

"You mean before you start to suck his face off." Jo replied.

Camille smiled and let out a slight shriek, leaning over and grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Jo. She brushed her hair over her shoulders before looking at her watch. "We should head down there anyway," she reasoned as she gently slid off of the bed, trying not to wrinkle her outfit. "We want to make sure that we have good seats, right?"

"I can't believe that we're finally going to see the DarkElements perform, live." Stephanie said as she grabbed her purse. "I've been waiting for this day for forever." She added excitedly.

"And this is coming from the girl that said that there was nothing to freak out about." Jo said teasingly as she got off of her bed as well. She turned off the lights to her room as she followed the other girls out to the main area of the apartment that she shared with her father, apartment 4J. She quickly wrote her father a note of where she was going before the three of them left the apartment. "Whatever happened to the girl that said it was no big deal?" She lightly nudged Stephanie in the side.

"That was before we were going to one of their concerts," Stephanie replied patiently. "You've watched all of their live videos," Camille and Jo nodded. "You know what I mean."

Jo smiled and nodded. The girls walked down to apartment 2J, talking and laughing as they went. Their laughter faded when they spotted the boys, Katie, and Mrs. Knight standing outside of the apartment, all looking worried. Jo locked her gaze onto Kendall and hurried over to him, placing a hand on his arm.

"Kendall, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Camille asked, lightly chewing on her lower lip. "You all look really tense."

"It's…just something that we found out," Katie said hesitantly, giving a fleeting smile. She looked up at Kendall, as if silently asking if what she said was ok. "Something weird, don't worry about it," she shook her head and forced a smile. "Let's just go to the concert."

"No, Katie, we have to tell them," Mrs. Knight said, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. She pulled her into her arms and gave her a light hug before turning to the girls, who looked back at her. "You know how the Jacksons have been acting strangely?" When the girls nodded, she ran a hand through her hair. "Well, we have reason to believe that they're being abused by their father."

Camille gasped loudly and Stephanie covered her hands with her mouth. Jo turned to Kendall and looked at him, when he looked back at her; she knew that he was telling the truth. She leaned forward and gave him a brief hug, knowing that the reason he hadn't called all day had to do with that. Kendall was always willing to do anything for someone that he considered his friend that had to be it. Her annoyance towards him melted away as he hugged her back.

"Are you sure?" Stephanie asked, her eyebrows knitting together.

"It's true," Carlos said quickly. He reached out and grabbed Stephanie's coat, holding it out to help her put it on. "But we can't really say more than that right now, we can tell you on the way, but we have to get going, _now_."

"We can explain everything on the way to the show," Mrs. Knight added. "Ronan arranged for a limo to take us there."

The girls nodded and they all went down to the PalmWoods lobby and waited for the limo to arrive. When it did, they clambered inside and Stephanie asked them, again, what was going on. Mrs. Knight explained everything that they knew the best she could on the way to the Roxy. As soon as they got there, they met up with Ronan outside, who explained to them that he wanted to get an actual admission from them before they actually confronted them with what was going on. He reminded them, that they should try and keep their emotions in control or it would cause the Jacksons to become suspicious and completely clam up before any of them got a response out of them.

Ronan led them through backstage and over to the Jacksons's dressing room. He stopped them outside when he realized that they were in a middle of a conversation.

"I'm surprised that you apologized to Katie so fast," they heard Riley say. She sounded a bit nervous. "Especially since none of us like to talk about our feelings."

"I apologized for yelling at her," Patrick replied, sounding annoyed. "Not for anything else. I don't like to talk about my feelings! I did it just to get her off of my back so that she wouldn't think that anything else was going on. Why else would think I did it?"

"Wow, you're smarter than we originally thought." Sydney snarked.

Ronan cleared his throat before he opened the door to the room and led everyone inside the dressing room. The Jacksons looked at them with mild confusion from where they sat on the floor, on the couch, or in a chair. Patrick turned and flashed his pearly whites in a warm smile. "Hey, shouldn't you guys be in your seats?" Patrick asked, tilting his head to the side. "The show is going to start soon."

Ronan took a breath. He could do this. "There isn't going to be a show." He said quietly.

Rhuben's nose wrinkled as her blue eyes shifted back and forth. "What are you talking about? We've had this planned for days." She held up a hand and waved it around. "Weeks even."

"The show's been cancelled," Ronan re-iterated. He opened his mouth to continue, but the Jacksons's cries of outrage caused him to fall silent again.

"What about the fans that came all the way from home to see us perform in the US for, like, practically the first time?" Riley demanded, obviously furious. "That's _thousands_ of miles, Ronan."

"We already get a lot of flak for things that we do," Noah added. "Do you think that this was a good idea? We could get even worse backlash because we've _never _cancelled a concert before; not even when you said that we should take a sickie."

Ronan held up his hands and they fell silent, waiting for what he was going to say. He looked over at Mrs. Knight, and the other boys and girls that were in the room. The Jacksons's eyes followed his gaze before they looked back at Ronan. Ronan took a deep breath and then lowered his hands, placing them on his knees as he bent over so he was at their eye-level.

"We know that you're being abused." He said quietly.

Sydney let out a gasp, his face, immediately going pale, and then turned away, shoving his thumb into his mouth, sucking on it. Patrick's eyebrows rose, but he didn't say anything. Noah looked at his hands. Rhuben tilted her head to the side, Riley looked right back at Ronan.

"That's a joke, Ronan." She finally managed to say with all the confidence in the world. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew she was lying, he would have believed her.

"Is it?" Carlos asked. "We all think that that's what's going on," he waved a hand to everyone behind him and turned back to her. "There's no way that we're all wrong."

"Well, you are," Riley insisted. She shook her head, her left hand rubbing her right arm. "We're not being abused."

"It's an easy mistake to make," Rhuben added, now looking at Ronan. Well, she wasn't directly looking at him; she was looking right above his head. "So many people have thought about it before. We've been asked about it, Dad too." She waved a hand, though it was shaking slightly. "It's alright that you thought that though." She gave her siblings a smile.

"Guys, if something is going on, then now's the time that you can tell us." Camille said quietly. "We're your _friends_." She added.

"Coming from the girl that's too preoccupied sucking face with her boyfriend that she couldn't even tell if it started to rain." Patrick said in a condescending tone, causing her and Logan to blush.

"It's funny," Kendall finally spoke up, his arms crossed over his chest. "I never pegged you as the kind of person to be so rude." He then tilted his head over to Riley and Rhuben. "I figured that it was something that was more their speed."

Sydney whimpered, his face slowly crumpling. He started to suck his thumb harder.

"Well, excuse me, _Kendall_!" Riley snapped, her eyes flashing. She said his name with a sneer as she got to her feet. "But it's better to be like this than-"

"Last I checked it's better to _not_ be someone's punching bag." He interrupted her. When Riley glared at him, he flinched and turned his head away.

"Belt up; you don't know what you're talking about." Riley spat, her hands rapidly clenching into fists and unclenching.

"Guys, just try to stay calm." Stephanie now tried. "We're only trying-"

"To help?" Rhuben interrupted. She then snorted. "Yeah, I think we got that so far. We don't need your help, alright? We don't need anyone's help, because they're nothing to be helped with." She threw her hands into the air in exasperation. She then turned her to attention to Kendall as he pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed a button. Her brows lowered in confusion and she exchanged glances with her siblings, who looked just as confused.

He grimaced.

Rhuben's eyes widened when she heard the phone conversation that she and Kendall had that morning. She slowly held her face in her hands as her voice and Robert's voices came from the recording. Noah leaned over and gently rubbed her on the back, using his free hand to grab onto hers. He rested his cheek against the back of her head, looking straight forward but looking at nothing. Kendall played the recording of that phone conversation, and then of the voicemail that she had left, calling him back and giving him an excuse as to why they couldn't have their private dance lesson that afternoon.

Riley slowly turned around to face Logan, realizing that he hadn't said anything at all since they had gotten there. She tilted her head to the side before her eyes widened and she pointed directly at him. "Oh my god!" She cried, her face slowly turning red. "You told! You fucking told!"

"I didn't tell anyone," Logan held his hands up defensively. "I swear! I didn't say a word, but Kendall found out, and we talked to Mama Knight, and then to Ronan and it all went on from there. But I didn't tell anyone anything until Kendall specifically confronted me about it and-"

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE FUCKING DONE?!" Riley shouted at the top of her lungs. "DO YOU?! YOU STUPID, BOOFHEADS!"

"Riley, calm down." Mrs. Knight said firmly. "We just want to help you."

"If you wanted to _help us_ then you could leave us to deal with it." Rhuben said quietly, almost in a whisper. Her chest was heaving up and down. "We've dealt with it before; we can keep dealing with it." She kept her eyes away from Ronan, afraid of what his expression was; he had been quiet for a while.

"Do you hear yourself right now?" James demanded. "Do you not know what's going on?"

"At this point I think we're perfectly aware with what's going on." Patrick said, crossing his arms over his chest. He gave a bitter laugh, flipping his hair from his face. "Do you think that we're completely dumb or that we're incompetent?"

"How could you keep this from us?" Katie added. "I mean, I know it's something that people wouldn't talk about usually and-"she shook her head. "I don't get it. I guess I just don't get it. How could you go through all of that pain? How could you keep a secret for a man that probably doesn't even care if you lived or died?"

"Stop it!" Sydney suddenly cried, pulling his thumb from his mouth. His eyes watered up with tears. "Please," he said quietly. "Just stop it." He turned and buried his face into Sydney's side.

Rhuben looked around the room coldly, holding her gaze on Logan a bit longer than the others, before she shook her head and started to walk towards the exit.

"Roll up your sleeve," Ronan instructed, his voice stopping her in her tracks.

Rhuben looked at him and he looked back at her, a look of fury on his face. She knew that it wasn't directed towards her, but it scared her either way. Rhuben lowered her gaze to the ground and slowly moved out her arms, pulling back her sleeves. Her arms were bare. Ronan moved towards her and pulled a tissue from his pocket. "This might hurt," he warned her before placing the tissue on her arm and pulling it hard across her skin. Almost immediately, the make-up moved away and finger-shaped bruises appeared on her forearm.

"Oh my god," Mrs. Knight's eyes widened and her hands moved to her mouth when she saw how dark the bruise was, it was almost black.

Logan closed his eyes and looked away. He didn't know how the others reacted and he didn't really care. He couldn't bear to see the bruises on her skin and know how much more there could be hidden on hers and her siblings' bodies. _And it's all my fault for not telling._

"Don't bother," At the sound of Riley's voice, Logan opened his eyes and looked at her. She had taken Ronan's tissue and had it up to her face, moving it around her right eye. When she pulled her hand back down, the make-up had gone away and a dark purple bruise appeared. "It looks worse than it actually is." She said weakly, all the fight immediately draining out of her, though she still held a scowl on her face.

Patrick sighed and he, Noah, and Sydney stood up. Patrick lifted his shirt and ran his hand across his stomach, grimacing slightly. When he moved his hand away, his bruised stomach showed. Noah did the same, but across his ribs. Sydney moved the make-up from his back to show the bruise that he had as well.

"That's enough," Ronan said and they lowered their shirts. All five of them kept their eyes on the ground. "Where's Robert?" He then asked his voice in a deathly low growl. "I think we've heard enough." He added, speaking towards the door.

"I think we have too," Linda said as he walked into the room, followed by six police officers. They went over to the Jacksons and started to examine t hem, causing the Jacksons to quickly back out of their reach, huddling together.

"What are you doing?" Rhuben asked as an officer lightly grabbed onto her upper arm.

"Everything's going to be ok," he said gently as the other officers moved over to the rest of the Jacksons. "We're going to take you to the hospital to be check out, and then we're going to ask you some questions."

"Let go of me." Riley pulled her arm from an officer's grasp as he held onto her. She took a step back; instinctively hooking one arm through Rhuben's and then wrapped the other around Sydney's shoulders and neck. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Ri, he just wants to help." Ronan said firmly.

"You can start by getting out of here," Robert said firmly as he walked into the room, his eyes scanning everyone around him. No one said anything, they were too afraid to say anything back to him, afraid that he was going to come after them too. "All of you!" He then turned to Ronan and gave him a look of utter disgust. "I didn't authorize you to cancel the concert tonight." He said dangerously.

Ronan didn't reply.

"ANSWER ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" He added and then looked at a police officer as he moved towards him. His eyes held complete disdain. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Robert Jackson?" he asked.

"Yeah," Robert snapped in reply.

"You are under arrest." The man grabbed onto Robert and turned him around, shoving him against the wall and holding his arms behind his back. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and _will_ be used against you in a court of law." He slapped handcuffs onto Robert's wrists as he tried to shake the officer off of him. "You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you." He turned Robert around and looked him in the face. "Do you understand these rights I have just read to you?"

Robert replied by hocking a loogie and spitting in the officer's face. He then lurched forward, trying to get to his kids. Patrick and Noah quickly pulled their sisters and baby brother behind them as Robert was restrained. Sydney's eyes roamed around the room, looking at everyone, before his eyes landed on Robert's cold, grey ones. He quickly looked away, but it was too late. The damage was done. He braced himself, but could never protect himself against his father.

Robert went crazy. "How dare you?" He yelled, spit flying from his mouth. "HOW FUCKING DARE YOU? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE DONE FOR YOU?!"

"Get him out of here!" One of the officers yelled.

Robert was then dragged, kicking and screaming from the room by two arresting officers.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Whew, and the first story arc is now done. I hope that you guys enjoyed it. I hope I answered a few questions that were raised and explained some things that were a bit confusing. The next few chapters, which is the next three chapters (27, 28, and 29) are in between arc 1 and arc 2.

This chapter had a _tiny_ bit from my first story, Big Time Rivalry, but I changed it from Logan to Kendall, as it made more sense to me that way. Then there was another part towards the end, did you guys catch it? Looking through movies and websites, I hope that I made DE's being taken to be questioned realistic. I only showed the girls for a moment, but their parts get bigger with the next chapter as well as James's and Carlos's. Like I said on twitter, Dak, WayneWayne, and Lizzie appear more starting with the next chapter. (You'll see Gustavo and Kelly in the next chapter as well).

Also, if anyone is confused, the part where the Jacksons willingly showed Ronan their bruises was only because of two reasons; 1. They knew at that point that they had been found out and 2. They respect Ronan enough to listen to him when he tells them to do something.

You'll see their questioning in the next chapter. I thought about making the part where they're taken to the hospital and then taken to be questioned really dramatic, but I realized that that wasn't the part that I wanted to be dramatic (you'll see which part I want it to be), so that's why it was mostly calm in this chapter.

Again, I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	27. When To Apologize

**.:Chapter Twenty-Seven – When To Apologize:.**

"_More people should apologize, and more people should accept apologies when sincerely made.__" ~__Greg LeMond_

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><p>"When do you think that they're going to be taken in for questioning?" Katie asked, kicking her feet back and forth, lightly scuffing the ground with her Chuck Taylor's. "I thought that they had to take you in for questioning as soon as something happened."<p>

"They police are probably waiting for them to get out of the hospital and to recover a bit first," Logan replied, his hands clasped tightly in his lap. "Just to be sure that they don't suffer from any more trauma while they're trying to get something out of them." He shook his head. "So they're not going to be questioned for a couple of days, and then we'd probably have to be questioned too, as witnesses. If this goes to court, then we may have to testify. But that doesn't even mean that Robert is going to go to jail for what he did."

"Why not?" Carlos asked quietly, his chin was in his hands and he was staring at the ground.

"There're a lot of reasons; not enough evidence," Logan shrugged. "The fact that they waited so long to say something, little things like that. Even now, some child abusers can get up to two years in jail, and even then, they still have the eligibility of parole." His lips formed a grim line.

"That would suck," James remarked.

"But it's not going to happen." Kendall said firmly, mustering up all the confidence that he had to try and get everyone else into believing so.

Mrs. Knight stayed silent.

The six of them were sitting in the waiting area of the hospital where the Jacksons were being treated. They had been in there for a couple of days now, Mrs. Knight had told them that Ronan told her because they refused to get treatment in some cases, some of their injuries were worse than they thought, so the doctors were making sure that they weren't in any danger of injuring themselves even more. They only just got the OK to go visit them in the hospital, and even then they weren't sure if that was a good idea. They weren't sure if their friends would be happy with what had happened, or if they would be mad at the guys for telling their secret. Either way, they just wanted to be able to go see them to be sure that they were OK.

"Sorry we're late," Jo called from down the hall as she, Camille, and Stephanie walked over to their friends. Each of them was carrying a potted plant. "We weren't sure what kind of flowers to bring," she said, holding hers out. "Or…if they would even like them."

"Have you been in to see them yet?" Camille asked.

"No, not yet," Carlos shook his head. "The doctors keep going in and out, but we haven't been allowed in yet."

"The receptionists are no help either," Katie added. "I tried everything that I could think of, and no one would tell me anything about how they were doing. Usually, they don't question you when you try and act like you're in a rush and say you're a family member."

"You sound like you've tried it before." Stephanie remarked, causing Katie to risk a glance at her mother. When she noticed that it didn't look like her mother was paying attention, Katie raised her finger to her lips and made a 'shhhh' motion, causing the others to laugh quietly. Stephanie sobered quickly, pulling her hair behind her ears. "Did you guys see the media outside?" She asked.

"No," James suddenly sat up straight, looking concerned. "How many are out there?"

"A lot," Stephanie said, nodding. "They started asking us questions when we were going in, somehow, they know what's going on." She added, confirming their fear.

Logan groaned, holding his face in his hands, the feeling that everything was his fault coming back to him. He _knew_ that they didn't want the media to find out; he _knew_ that if that happened, it would just cause their band to get a lot of backlash as well as having lots of questions thrown around. The attention would be all on the Jacksons and they didn't want that. Rhuben had told him so, _twice. _The main reasons they didn't say anything about what was going on was because they didn't want to be split up and because they didn't want their personal lives to be put out all over the web and TV. That's why they wrote about it in their songs, it was a way for people to find out, without them actually having to say anything.

He felt sick.

"Hey, come on Logan, it's not your fault." Camille reassured her boyfriend, walking over and placing a hand on the back of his neck. "This would have happened eventually, a secret can't be a secret for long." She leaned over and gently kissed the back of his head.

"Apparently it can if it's been held for this long," James muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked up when he noticed a taller figure walking towards them. He was a bit shorter than James, but tall nonetheless, though he looked young. "Can we help you?" He asked when the boy hesitantly stopped near them.

"I was hoping that you could," the guys moved his fringe off of his forehead and gave a small smile. "I'm looking for my brothers and sisters."

"And you are?"

"I'm-"

"Julius," everyone turned and spotted Ronan briskly walking down the hallway towards them. He looked tired, he had slight bags under his eyes, but he was still happy to see the boy that was with him. When he reached the boy, he stuck out his hand and Julius' grabbed it in his before the two leaned forward and thumped each other on the back. "Glad you could make it so fast. How was your flight?"

"How is _any _14 hour flight, mate?" Julius replied, his accent very thick. "Long and boring."

"I'll bet," Ronan replied. He then turned to the others. "Guys, this is Julius Jackson, their eldest brother. And this is Mrs. Knight, Jo, Cam-"

"I know who all of you are," Julius interrupted with a warm smile. "My brothers and sisters talk about you all the time whenever I call or they call home. So I feel that I know you guys pretty well."

"They do?" Jo looked surprised, her brown eyes widening. She then gave a shy smile as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "I hope that what they said was good."

"Nothing but good things," Julius reassured her, his eyes moving over everyone. "In fact," he thought for a moment. "I don't' think I've ever heard them say anything bad about you guys. You must be some good friends to them."

"Yeah, we must be." Kendall agreed with a slow nod.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," Mrs. Knight said as she stood up to shake his hand. He shook it firmly. "We've heard about you too." She crossed her arms once more, her jacket dangling off of her arms. "I thought you weren't coming until next week because of papers and projects. Or did the news…"

"That's part of the reason why I'm here early, actually," Julius said slowly. He looked sad. "I finished my work early and then I got the news about what happened and rushed over here as soon as I could," He sighed. "I just hope you don't think that I'm a terrible brother for not saying anything. You see, he threatened me if I told, because he hit me up until I graduated and went off to college. The only reason _I _didn't say anything was because I wanted to get enough money and have a good enough job so I could take my brothers and sisters in and contest Robert to become their guardian." He shrugged. "I guess things just moved faster than I thought."

The others nodded. For as hard as it was for the Jacksons, it had to be even harder for Julius. He was already over 7000 miles away (7437 miles if you wanted to be exact) and having to be that far and know what's been going on with them day after day must have just about killed him. Kendall shook his head. He didn't know what he would do if he was in that position with Katie.

Julius then smiled again before turning back to Ronan. "My brothers and sisters haven't run you into the ground have they?"

"Not yet, anyway," Ronan replied.

"Excuse me," A nurse walked over to them, holding onto a clipboard. "Are you guys here for," she looked at the sheet of paper on her clipboard. "Rilandon, Rhubella, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney Jackson?" She asked, lifting her head. At the unanimous reply, she smiled warmly. "You can all go in and see them now," she gestured with her arm. "Dr. Graham is just doing a few last minute checks with them."

"Great, thanks." Ronan smiled before leading them into the room. The Jacksons had managed to take a large hospital room. There were three beds and two chairs in the room. Riley was sitting on one bed with Sydney beside her, Patrick and Noah were sitting on another bed, and Rhuben was sitting on her own bed. The five of them looked just about ready to be taken out of the room at that point.

Sydney was being looked over by Dr. Graham when they walked in. "Ok, just follow my finger…and blink."

Sydney did as he was told, lightly kicking his feet back and forth as he waited for the doctor's diagnosis. He looked up as everyone entered the room, when he spotted Julius; the largest smile appeared on his face. He looked like he wanted to jump off of the table and run over to him, but the Doctor that was still looking him over, kept him still. The others must have had the same idea, for as soon as they saw their eldest brother, they all perked up, but they didn't move.

"Ok, despite the bumps and bruises, you all seem to be perfectly fine, you healed very well" Dr. Graham stated as he put his stethoscope around his neck. He chuckled a little, patting Sydney on the head. "You know, considering how long you've gone through this kind of pain." He gave a small smile. "You're very brave."

Sydney took that as his cue to get off of the table. At one time, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney bum-rushed their brother and collided with him in a big hug, all chattering at one time, trying to get his attention. Julius laughed and hugged each of them back, holding onto them tightly. It was probably the happiest that anyone had ever seen them.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't around as much as you guys needed me," he apologized as Sydney took his hand and led him over to a bed to sit down as the others crowded into the room as well. "I don't think I'm ever going to forgive myself for that," he added, looking at their fresh bandages.

"It's not your fault, Julius," Rhuben reminded her older brother, gently.

"Thanks Munchkin," Julius replied with a half smile. "But I can't help the way I feel." He then gave each of them a hug again.

"I'm glad that all of you are ok," Linda said, from the corner of the room. James made a face, not having noticed that she was there. He wasn't sure what he thought of the woman, it seemed like she was doing her job as part of the child protective services, but it also didn't seem like she was that worried about the Jacksons as well, as she had probably seen something like this all of the time. She turned to Ronan. "But we have some things that we need to talk about."

"What's going to happen to our dad?" Riley demanded, getting right to the point. She turned to Linda and crossed her arms over her chest, her right hand laying on a bandage on her left bicep.

"Well, he's sitting in jail right now," Linda replied. She then paused, her eyes moving around the room, seemingly unable to stay on one person. "But, I have to be honest with you guys. There's a good chance that someone could bail him out of jail, and if that doesn't happen, there's a good chance that after a few years in jail, he could come out on parole."

"What?" Katie, Jo, Camille, and Stephanie cried in unison.

Katie glared. "That bast-"

"Katie!" Mrs. Knight interrupted, effectively cutting her daughter off so she couldn't curse.

"That _bad guy_," Katie quickly corrected herself. "Goes and hits his children, possibly almost killing them at any other time, and there's still a chance that he can come out of jail and do it again?" she looked disgusted. "Even with their confession and this evidence?" Linda nodded. "I thought Logan was kidding, but that is totally and completely _stupid_!"

"Well, unfortunately, there are a lot of kids in the world who are being abused, and the judicial system still hasn't come to the realization that these guys should stay in jail for life." Ronan replied with a helpless shrug. He turned to Linda. "What else do we have to talk about?"

"Well, there's the fact that we don't know where they're going to stay," Linda started.

"They can stay with us!" Carlos offered excitedly. "Our apartment is big enough!" He motioned to himself, Kendall, Logan, and James. "We can give up our beds and sleep on the couches if we have to!" He added eagerly.

Linda gave a sympathetic smile. "That's a generous offer," she told him. "But I don't think Mrs. Knight is a good fit, she already has her own children to look after and then you three, I don't think she can take in five more." She added. "Not even Wonder Woman could handle that."

"But they wouldn't be in the way," Carlos continued, sounding like he was going to start whining.

"They can stay with me," Ronan interrupted, grabbing Linda's attention. "They've stayed over at my apartment the times that Robert had pretty much dumped them on me so that shouldn't be a problem. I have more space than I can deal with anyway."

"Then I need to ask them some questions," Linda made a note on her clipboard and turned to the Jacksons. "Like, why you didn't say anything about what was going on in the first place? I have it on my records here, that you never said anything, even when the abuse started." She then motioned to Mrs. Knight, Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Katie, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James. "You didn't even tell them, when the evidence was right there in their faces."

"Yeah, I thought we were your friends." Carlos added with a puppy-dog pout.

Riley and Rhuben winced.

Patrick sighed, twirling a strand of a loose thread around his finger. "We didn't say anything because we were scared." He muttered. "Because he threatened that he would hurt whomever we told." He lifted his head, seeming to suddenly register what Carlos told him. "When did we become friends?" Patrick looked genuinely confused.

"Probably as soon as we met you," James replied with a small smile

"We didn't tell because we figured that it was no one's business," Riley answered the averted question. "Plus, we didn't think that anyone would care."

"Either way, without them saying anything we could possibly be dead right now," Sydney said. He suddenly sucked in a sharp breath. "Are we able to go home?" He asked Linda.

She hesitated. "That's probably not a good idea," she said, tapping her clipboard with her pen. "You see, the chief of police doesn't think it's a good idea for you to go back to your home. We don't want to risk anything, just in case Robert gets bailed out and tries to find you. So there's going to be some police officers staking out your house for a while." She then turned to Ronan. "There are a lot of things that we need to talk about." She said firmly.

"Of course," Ronan nodded.

Linda then turned to Mrs. Knight and Julius. "I think it would be best if you guys come as well."

"No," Noah said quietly, holding tightly onto Julius's arm.

"It's alright, Maestro," Julius said, patting Noah on the back. "I'm not going anywhere, we'll be back soon." He then gave each of his siblings a kiss on the forehead, before getting up and leaving the room, causing his siblings to visibly deflate.

There was a considerable amount of silence after that. The only sound that was emitted in the room was Jo's, Camille's, and Stephanie's footsteps as they crossed the room to put their plants down on the desk that was in the corner of the room. It wasn't even that they didn't know what to say, it was that they didn't really want to bring up what they had just talked about. The memories were probably too great at this point, too fresh, so it was probably better that they just apologized and moved on with it as quickly as possible.

"Guys," Kendall spoke up, licking his lips. "We're really sorry for what happened." He said and the others nodded. "We're sorry for what happened to _you_ and we're sorry that we didn't try to get help for you sooner."

"It's not entirely your fault," Sydney reminded him. "We're the ones that were trying to push you away so you didn't find out. So…you can't really blame yourself for this."

"I know but," Kendall turned to Rhuben, who looked back at him. "It wasn't in my place to record the conversation that we were having on my phone. It was a breach of your privacy and if you had known that I was recording it, you probably would have hung up on me a while ago." Rhuben blinked, but still didn't say anything. "I really broke your trust in me at that point…but I was just so desperate to figure out what was going on…that I didn't think what would happen…and…" he moved his bangs off of his forehead. "I'm really, very sorry, Rhu…ben?" He guessed after a second, he still wasn't exactly sure which twin he was talking to. He then relaxed when Rhuben nodded. She sucked in a breath through her nose. When she didn't answer right away, Kendall continued. "If you don't want to do any more private lessons to help me, I understand."

Rhuben then snorted as she shook her head. She stayed silent for a few minutes longer before looking away. "It's whatever," she said finally, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked back at Kendall; her eyes narrowed and spoke softly. "Just know that I won't ever forget that you did it. That was a total slap in the face, you know." She added.

"I know, I'm sorry." Kendall repeated, feeling a little better.

"Just be glad you didn't do that to me," Riley said.

"Why's that?"

"Because at this point, they'd be dragging the San Francisco Bay for your body." Riley said flippantly. Noah smiled.

Kendall blinked once. "You're really blunt, aren't you?" He asked.

"Took you long enough to figure that one out, Einstein." Riley said and then started to pick at her fingernails. "No, I wouldn't dump your body in the bay, I'd probably put it in a landfill, after making sure that no evidence can be traced back to me." She looked up at Kendall and held his gaze for a long moment. "I'm kidding," she said after a beat.

"You have a strange sense of humor," Kendall said with a half smile, slowly shaking his head.

"And you have large eyebrows," Riley gave a one-armed shrug. "What else is new?"

Kendall couldn't help it, he _had_ to laugh. That broke the tension in the room and everyone else started to ask questions and apologize about what had happened as well.

"I'm sorry too," Logan added, "I mean, you guys were really asking for help, but when Riley and Rhuben told me not to tell, that you had it under control, I didn't really know what to do. I ended up keeping it a secret, because I was scared of what would happen if I did tell, especially after you guys told me why you didn't want to."

Riley shook her head. "It wasn't right to put you in a position like that," she said. "Any of you." She added.

"I'm sorry too." Katie added.

"Me too." James and Carlos agreed.

"Ugh, would everyone please stop apologizing!" Patrick cried, clearly uncomfortable. "It's done. Whatever. We're fine." He shrugged. "I'm as healthy as a horse."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, his lips twitched and he tried really hard not to smile. He even went as far as to suck his cheeks into his mouth to keep from laughing hysterically. When he was about to burst, he looked over at Noah, who seemed like he was trying really hard not to laugh as well, as Noah looked back at him. The two lost it and then doubled over in hysterics.

"Only boys could figure out how to make something that like so funny." Stephanie commented as she rolled her eyes.

"That reminds me," Camille held up a bag that had been dangling off of her arm. She turned to Riley and Rhuben. "We have something for you guys." She said, holding the bag out to them.

Rhuben took it very slowly, looking skeptical. "What is it?" she asked.

"Open it." Jo urged.

Rhuben stuck her hand into the bag and pulled out two, thin, leather bands, one in purple and one in red. She tossed it over to Riley, who caught it in midair and looked it over curiously. "What's this for?" she asked.

"Remember those bands that you got me and Jo?" Camille asked, and the twin girls nodded. "Well, we got one for Steph and we got one for you two as well, kind of like…friendship bracelets."

Riley's face clouded and she held the band out. "I'm sorry, I can't accept this, not with the money that-"

"No," Jo pushed it back towards her. "We really want you guys to have it." She insisted.

"And we're not taking 'no' for an answer." Stephanie added. Riley dropped her arm to her lap, looking at the band, not making a move to put it on. Rhuben continued to look hers over. "You're welcome," she added, knowing that they didn't really know what to say, or were too embarrassed to say anything in general.

The twin girls nodded, still quiet.

"So, when are you getting out of here?" Katie asked. "Sometime today, right? You should come over to our apartment, we can hang out." She offered.

Noah shook his head. "Can't." he said simply.

"That's alright," Katie gave him a patient smile. "Some other time then." Noah looked back at her and gave a small smile before it slid off of his face once more. "Oh," she snapped her fingers. "But what about your music? Are you guys going to take a break?"

"No," Rhuben twirled the end of her long ponytail around her finger. "We've worked so hard on it and we've just finished it, it's going to be released soon. We're not taking a break," she rested her arms behind her, her left hand landing on a black notebook. "It wouldn't be fair to our fans."

Logan looked at the notebook and gave a half-smile to himself. He recognized it as her lyric notebook, the same one that she had dropped when he first bumped into her when they met up again. It wasn't that long ago, but now he could think back to that day and pin-point their strange behavior to when Robert was around. Something he wished he had noticed sooner. He looked up at Rhuben and she looked back at her, her eyes soft for a moment. He realized she knew what he was thinking and was silently telling him not to worry about it, that she wasn't mad.

"Besides," Riley pulled her hair out of its ponytail, allowing it to reach its full length, falling down to her mid-back, some of it over her shoulders. "Music was always an escape to us; it'll give us time to relax before having to go in to be questioned and everything."

"Can we talk about something else?" Stephanie asked, seeming to notice, the Jacksons close in on themselves again. She turned to Carlos and grabbed onto his hand, noticing that he beamed as she did so. "Tell them about what happened in class yesterday."

"Oh, let me," Kendall broke in. "What happened was-"

The Jacksons all groaned at the same time. "Can we go home now?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **This chapter ended up being shorter than I intended it to be. I was really torn between showing the questioning that DE gets in this chapter or not and decided to put it later (and that is explained why in this chapter). I hope that you guys liked it anyway. I'm sorry Gustavo/Kelly didn't appear in this chapter, they'll be in the next one and I'll explain why they weren't there. Dak, Lizzie, and WayneWayne appear in the next chapter and things pick up from here.

To Logie-Luvr – I changed from 'When' to 'How' to 'When' for chapter titles because I realized that the chapter titles I had in mind, wouldn't work if it was still 'when' at the beginning. And it is only for the first arc. I'm still trying to figure out how to structure the chapter titles for the 2nd and 3rd arcs if I don't ultimately leave them like this.

Don't forget that this chapter, the next one, and the one after that (27, 28, and 29) are between arcs 1 and 2.

Cheers,

-Riles


	28. When To Make Plans

**.:Chapter Twenty-Eight – When To Make Plans:.**

"_A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." ~George S. Patton_

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><p>"Alright dogs, we need to talk," Gustavo said sharply as he walked into the conference room. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James stared back at him as he sat down in the seat at the head of the table. "About this tour that you're going to go on!"<p>

"What tour?" Carlos asked. The right side of his face screwed up in confusion. "Didn't we already go on a tour to promote our CD?"

"Shhh," James whispered loudly. "Do you want to _stop_ performing? Let the man talk!" He then turned and gave Gustavo a winning smile, clasping his hands in front of him on the table.

Gustavo made a face, leaning back as he looked at the smile on James's face. He then slowly held up a hand and pointed at James. His eyes narrowed behind his yellow tinted sunglasses. "Don't ever smile at me like that again, it's creepy."

Kendall laughed and reached over, patting James on the back as James sank lower in his seat. He then turned his attention to Gustavo, looking just as confused as the other boys. "So why is it that we're here?" His eyebrows rose. "Does this have to do with the DarkElements?"

"Yes," Kelly said as she walked into the room. She turned and held the door open as Julius, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney trooped into the room and filled in the remaining seats around the table. Ronan opted to lean against the back well. Kelly was out of breath as she closed the door behind them. "Sorry I'm late," she apologized. "I got stopped by Griffin on the way here." She explained quickly.

Gustavo let out a grunt. He couldn't shake the conversation that had with Griffin out of his head. Where did Griffin get off, telling Gustavo how to run his own company? If he knew how, he would find a way to get Griffin to be fired from CEO at Rocque Records. But it wasn't like Griffin hadn't helped them as he had worked at Rocque Records. He was the one that signed them to RCM CBT Global Net Sanyoid. Without that, they probably wouldn't have the funding that he did now.

_But if he wasn't such a fucking jerk…_Gustavo shook his head, trying to keep his anger in check.

"Gustavo, is something wrong?" Sydney asked, using his right hand to hold his overgrown bangs out of his eyes. "You seem really tense." His dimples appeared in his cheeks as he frowned. "More so than usual, at least."

"I'm fine," Gustavo replied, rubbing his temples.

"Are you sure?" Ronan asked his arms crossed over his chest, his right foot planted against the wall. He was probably leaving a footprint, but at the moment, he didn't care about how annoyed Gustavo would be at him later. "You've been out of touch for a couple of weeks now. I've tried to call you since…that day," he looked over at his clients, before looking back at Gustavo. "It's like you disappeared."

"At the sake of getting this out of the way," Kelly finally caught her breath, placing a hand on her hip. She regarded everyone in the room. "Do you want to know why Gustavo has been MIA these past couple of days? It's because-"

"It's none of their business," Gustavo interrupted her.

But Kelly kept going. "He was in jail," Kelly concluded with a pointed look towards her partner.

Ronan started to choke as the Jacksons smiled a little. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all stared at Kelly and Gustavo in shock. Kelly nodded slowly to their reactions, a grim look on her face. Gustavo merely crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head away.

"What?" Ronan finally asked when he managed to catch his breath.

"It's not like it's _that_ surprising," Carlos said as he rubbed the tip of his finger on the top of the table. "He's been in jail before for that Matthew McConaughey thing." He looked up at his music producer. "What did you go to jail for this time?"

"You're actually going to like this one," Kelly gave a small smile as she placed her hand on her hip. She turned her head towards Gustavo. "Gustavo got put in jail because when he found out what was going on with Robert, he tracked him down and beat him up for it."

"Whoa!" Carlos cried, looking impressed. "Really?"

"Like Carlos said, it's not that surprising." Julius said with a laugh. He looked amused. "At some point or another, I figured he would go because he assaulted that Griffin person that Ronan keeps telling me about."

"I'm trying to keep that one from happening," Kelly said to him. "So don't give him any ideas."

"You actually beat someone up?!" Kendall cried. His eyes lit up as he leaned forward in his seat. "That's really cool. Especially for such a good cause." He exchanged glances with his best friends and looked over at the Jacksons. They didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular, just looking at a random spot on the wall.

It wasn't that it was that surprising; the Jacksons hadn't been around for the past couple of weeks. The boys had gotten used to them coming to the record company to help them with whatever they had been working on, but they never showed. Logan tried calling them and they would answer, but it would be short conversations. Whenever they would go to the mall to try and find them at the restaurant, the owner would say that they had just missed them. When they called Ronan's apartment, it was the same thing. They knew that they weren't avoiding the boys that they needed space, but it still hurt a little.

"It's not that cool," Kelly said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, though they could see pride in her eyes. "He was put in jail on a large bail, and I had to bail him out and then help keep that from getting in the press."

"Thanks Gustavo," Patrick said with a nod. He then gave a half-smile. "I'm sure that you've been waiting _years_ to be able to do that without needing a reason for it. But thanks all the same."

"You're welcome." Gustavo mumbled.

"Well," Ronan clapped his hands together as he pushed himself off of the wall. "We brought everyone together today to talk about touring." He motioned to his clients. "As of yesterday they have finished their album and they're going to have the release party very soon. What we have planned so far is to release that, and then go back to Australia so they can finish the release of their Australian album and then go on a month and a half tour in Australia, New Zealand, and maybe the UK to promote it as well as-"

"We're going to tour in Australia?!" Carlos blurted.

Logan shushed him, slapping a hand over his mouth. He gave Carlos a hard look before shaking his head. "Let him finish," he said sharply. "I'm sure that they already have opening acts for their Australian tour." He said and then nodded for Ronan to finish.

"But they then have to promote their American album, which is where you guys come in," Ronan said and pointed to Big Time Rush. "I already talked to Gustavo and Kelly about this, and for the month and a half after they finished their Australian tour, they're going to go on their first headlining US tour, and we want you guys and Dak to be their opening acts for it."

James sat up straight as he grinned. He exchanged glances with the other guys and nodded. There was no doubt about it, they would be glad to go and tour with their friends, to help them become very successful. That way, they would also be able to see how the DarkElements performed at their concerts as they hadn't been able to do that yet, not the whole two hour set.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say that we would be honored to open for them." Logan said with a nod. He tried his hardest not to freak out about it, and knew that his friends would be too. "But," he looked concerned. "Wouldn't two tours in three months be hard on them?"

"No," Julius shook his head. "They've been a band for so long; it shouldn't be that hard to fall back into the routine."

"In his own modest way, Julius is saying that we should e used to it." Noah's arms were crossed over his chest and he pushed himself back and forth in his office chair with his right foot. The other was brought up underneath him. "We were on tour all year last year, and for most of the year before that, promoting our last two albums." His eyes were above Logan's head, so he missed the look of shock pass over his face. "But since we're working with you guys under our contract now, we go back to Australia to work and to continue promoting ourselves every three months or so."

"So half a year is spent in the US and the other half is spent in Australia." Patrick concluded. "The jet lag is probably gonna catch up to us at some point, but we're used to that as well. Especially when we would come back to the US to work on some songs with Dak." He started to count off on his fingers. "Like, his one-liners in Savin' Me, and the bridge he had at the end of All The Same and-"

Riley reached out and grabbed onto his hand. "Now you're bragging." She said sharply. Patrick nodded and pulled his hands back under the table.

"We think that, like the concert at the Planet Hollywood in New York, as well as the photo shoots that we had to promote it, it would be good for both bands." Kelly said with a warm smile. She moved her head in a circle, moving her hair behind her shoulders. "But this time, the promotion will come from RCM CBT Global Net Sanyoid and their products, so all you will have to do is practice until the shows come up."

"How are we going to practice if they're not going to be here?" James asked, suddenly looking like he was going to panic. "It's the first time we're opening for someone; I don't want to screw that up."

"You won't." Sydney said shortly.

"You guys are going to do a good job," Julius agreed. "With us there," he motioned to himself, Kelly, Gustavo, and Ronan, who each nodded in turn. "And with these guys," he reached out and mussed Riley's hair, causing her to make a sound and to quickly move it back into place. Julius laughed lightly. "They'll be there to back you up as well."

"We still need to go over the finer details about things," Kelly flipped through her PDA. "Tour buses, hotels, venues, the production company, rehearsals, catering, your dressing rooms, back up bands, all of that stuff." She lifted her head and grinned. "But it should be a good tour."

"So…" Rhuben drummed her knuckles on the table. "Can we go home now?" When she got silence for her answer, the Jacksons stood up and started to push their chairs in, moving to clear the room as quickly as possible.

Big Time Rush got up and did the same. Carlos smiled as he took off his helmet, spinning it in his hands. "So, this should be a great tour." He said to them.

"I guess," Riley muttered.

Carlos tilted his head to the side, his brown eyes holding curiosity and slight hurt. It didn't take much to hurt Carlos or make him mad as it was. There was a reason that he was named the 'sensitive one' of the group. The guys made fun of him for it, but Carlos said that it was what was going to get him a girlfriend, and that they would eat his words when it happened. "Did I miss something?" He asked.

"What?" Riley's eyebrows lowered for a fraction of a second.

Kendall quickly jumped to Carlos's defense. "Because you sound mad, Riles." Kendall rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'll have to work on that, then, won't I?" Riley pushed her long hair over her shoulders. She gave him a weird look; backing away from him, following her siblings. "And since when do you call me, 'Riles'?"

Logan quickly stepped forward this time, trying to make them feel comfortable. He smiled over at Rhuben and then at Riley. "Do you guys want to hang out?" He asked eagerly. "We're not doing anything the rest of the day, so we have time."

"Can't." Rhuben replied simply.

"Can't or won't?" Logan asked, looking hard at her.

Rhuben hesitated for a moment before tilting her head back slightly to look up at him, directly into his eyes. The direct eye contact caused him to become uncomfortable. "Which answer would be better for you?" There was a challenging edge to her tone.

"One where you're honest." Logan replied.

"A bit of both, then." Rhuben said and then turned on her heel to leave. "See you later, Logie-Bear." She followed her siblings out of the room. Ronan stopped by the door and turned to the guys with a sympathetic smile.

"Just give them time, guys," He said warmly. "They'll come back around; besides, they said that they're going to help you on your song, so they can't back out of that. Try then." His smile widened before he left the room and followed his friends/clients.

* * *

><p>WayneWayne looked at his watch as he walked through the mall, trying to figure out how much longer he could be out so when he got home his family wouldn't bombard him with questions; wondering where he'd been, if he was with someone, how'd filming go? It wasn't even that he didn't like working on the Ziggle Zaggles. It was that people never stopped teasing him when they found out that it was him. The fact that his hair was slicked back, they made him do cheesy dance moves and songs, and that they made him get rid of (if not sculpt) his facial hair, it made it harder for some people to recognize him, which was a blessing. But when they <em>did<em> find out, it was torture.

_But it's better to have a job in LA than not to have one. _WayneWayne shuddered a bit at the thought of how humiliated he was after the whole Big Time Rush debacle. _That_ WayneWayne, the rapper from the streets of Detroit, wasn't him at all. He was just desperate to get a part so he could provide for his family and to make them proud. He knew he went about it the wrong way, but still…

The humiliation wasn't worth it.

WayneWayne finally decided on getting McDonalds to get some food. He stood in line, remembering to put sunglasses over his eyes. He didn't want to be recognized by any little kids. He usually didn't have a problem with it, he usually liked it. But he just wasn't in the mood to sing any of his songs that day.

"Yes, how may I help you?" The cashier asked as cheerfully as possible.

"Yes, I'd like a number 13 but with large fries," WayneWayne said, quickly scanning the lit up menu as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket.

"Would that be all?" The cashier never raised her eyes from the electronic register in front of her as she pushed buttons on it. WayneWayne nodded and she pulled up his total. "That'll be $8.25"

WayneWayne looked through his wallet and inwardly groaned when he realized that he was two dollars short. He made a mental note to yell at his sister later, knowing that she had taken the larger bills from his wallet. It wouldn't be the first time it happened. He groaned lightly, tilting his head back as he held onto his wallet.

"Uh," he gave a light laugh. "You see, I'm a bit-"

"Here you go,"

WayneWayne turned around to see Riley standing behind him, holding out three one dollar bills. WayneWayne took it with a nod and handed it over to the cashier before stepping aside so Riley could make her order. When she finished, she turned to him, resting her elbow on the counter, not seeming to notice (or care) that the person behind her couldn't move forward to order.

"Most people say 'thank you' when someone offers them money," she prompted, raising her right eyebrow. "And what's with the sunglasses indoors?"

"Thank you, Riley." WayneWayne said as he turned to face her completely. He noticed the strange look on her face. "What?" He asked self-consciously.

"Nothing," she replied with a quick shake of her head. "It's just that usually people can't tell me and my sister apart until after months of knowing us." She shoved her hands into her jeans pockets. "It's not a bad thing," she added after a minute. "It's a welcome change, really." She paused and then gave a wry smile. "You're a fan aren't you?" she asked.

WayneWayne shrugged, mimicking her and putting his hands into his jeans pockets. "Only because Camille really got me into you guys. But I don't obsess like other people do." He briefly wondered if that was something that she could take as offensive. But she merely nodded in reply.

"Good to know," she said and then nodded behind him. "I think your order's ready." She said. WayneWayne turned and grabbed onto the bag that was being held out to him. He turned to the free space on the counter and opened the bag to make sure that everything was in there. He looked up when she got his attention once more. "Have fun on the Ziggle Zaggles," she said as she grabbed her bag of food.

WayneWayne watched as she walked away, wondering how she knew that if he had never brought it up.

* * *

><p>Ronan looked up from his newspaper as he heard a knock on his apartment door. He looked at his watch before standing up, looking over at Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, who were sitting on the floor around Sydney's laptop, seeming to be watching a movie. Julius was on his own laptop, stretched out on the couch, headphones over his ear, the TV remote in his hand, and sleeping quietly. He gave a slight smile before walking over to the front door and opening it.<p>

"Hey Dak," he greeted the teenage boy that stood in front of him. "What's up?"

"Hey Ronan," Dak replied with a wave. He shuffled his feet. "I was just wondering if Rhu was here…I tried at their house, but no one answered."

"Oh, of course," Ronan winced slightly. He should have known that someone that didn't know what was going on would try to find them at their old house. Even with Ronan's pushing, the Jacksons hadn't told Dak or Lizzie what had been going on, so of course he wouldn't think anything of them not being at their home. "Let me get her." Ronan closed the door a little bit before walking back to the living room. "Hey, Rhubes," Rhuben lifted her head. "Someone's at the door for you."

"Thanks," she said, pushing herself to her knees before getting to her feet. She walked across the apartment to get to the door as Patrick, Noah, and Sydney immediately squished together to take up her space on the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Rhuben asked Dak. She looked over her shoulder before closing the door behind her, stepping out into the hallways. She knew that if any of the others saw him, they would promptly freak out. She even had the unmistakable feeling of panic rising up her body.

"You guys haven't returned any of our calls or hung out with me or Liz for a while now," Dak explained. He shrugged. "At this point, we were starting to think that you were avoiding us, because you always seemed to have some sort of excuse not to hang out. So I thought that I would come over and see what was up."

Rhuben felt a twinge of guilt. Realistically, it wasn't even her fault. She and her siblings just weren't ready to tell anyone what had happened to them or what was going on in their lives at the moment. It was hard enough for them to keep their secret from the two of them in the first place, let alone BTR for a while. So why was it so hard to try and keep what was going on now from them? Each time they had to turned down one of Dak's or Lizzie's offer to hang out, knowing that something was going to slip out, they all felt really bad about it. Ronan had even tried to get them to hang out, but he knew that when they were stubborn about something, it would be hard for them to change their minds, so he wasn't pushing them on it.

"So, what's up?"

Rhuben studied Dak's face. He was looking at her funny, not in the same way that he normally did. Now, it seemed like he was trying hard not to make her upset. Or that he was trying to make sure he didn't say anything wrong.

Almost as if…

"You know don't you?" Rhuben guessed after a second.

Dak hesitated for a moment. They both knew what she was talking about. Dak's eyes moved to the bandage that was on her cheek. "I didn't know. Not exactly. Well, I kinda did."

"Huh?" Rhuben's eyes narrowed slowly.

"Sorry, I'm not being clear," Dak rubbed the back of his neck. "What I mean is Lizzie and I thought that something was going on. And we talked to someone about it, but they said that nothing could be done without any proof…so…"

"So, what?" Rhuben asked cautiously. "Did you come here to pity me?" Her face then changed to one of irritation. "Or did you just want to bask in the fact that while my life seems perfect, it's nothing but crap!"

"No!" Dak looked shocked and a little hurt. "I would never do that." He licked his lips. "You _know_ I would never do that, or think it for that matter. I wanted to be sure that you guys were OK." His eyes shifted. "_Are_ you OK?"

"As good as can be expected, I guess." Rhuben shrugged, clearly uncomfortable. She crossed her arms over her chest before pointing over her shoulder. "I should get going." She said.

Dak moved forward to give her a hug. She kept her arms to her sides, shaking as he hugged her. When she pulled back to go inside; he bent his head towards her and she quickly turned her head away, causing him to kiss her on the cheek. Rhuben looked at her feet as Dak laughed quietly. "I should have seen that coming." He said and then held up his hand when Rhuben opened her mouth. "No, don't apologize. It's my fault. I don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you into anything."

Rhuben frowned as Dak plunged his hands into the pockets of his coat, grabbing his car keys. "Why do you always do that?" she asked. Her sudden question caused his head to jerk up. He moved so fast that he dropped his keys to the ground.

"Do what?" He asked as he picked them up. Rhuben was sure that he did that on purpose so the expression on his face wouldn't give anything away.

"Why are you so patient with me all the time," Rhuben placed her hands on her lower back. "I don't deserve it." She added quietly, lightly kicking at the ground.

"You didn't deserve to get hit either." Dak reminded her gently. Rhuben let out a sigh through her nose, running a hand over her face, suddenly looking tired. "Has anyone ever told you that you look really cute when you're tired?"

Rhuben raised an eyebrow as she reached up and twisted her strand of purple hair around her index finger before pushing it behind her ear. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head away as she blushed lightly. "Well, I was hoping for a smile, but a blush is just as good." He finally pulled his keys from his pocket and gave a short wave. "I'll see you later; tell your brothers and sister 'hi' for me." He started to walk towards his car, but stopped halfway and turned back to her. "By the way, I had a good time on our date tonight."

"What?" Rhuben blurted, completely confused. "I don't remember ever agreeing to go out with you."

"You didn't have to," Dak replied with a shrug and a calm smile. "A date is when two people hang out and get to know each other and have fun, maybe a talk a little. "He pointed at her. "And that's what we did. Now, I don't know about you, but I had a good time."

"Dak-"Rhuben shook her head.

"You can go on pretending like we didn't have one, that's fine," Dak finally got to the driver's side of his car and pressed the button on his remote to unlock his car. "I'll just go home with a smile on my face." He laughed when Rhuben shook her head again. "I'll see you later, Rhu."

"Ugh," She knew that she had lost that conversation, no matter how many ways she could try and fight it. "Later," Rhuben gave him the peace sign before slipping back into Ronan's apartment.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Ok, starting next chapter it'll have an equal balance of everyone, so you'll see more of Julius, Sydney, Patrick, and Noah, and the girls (as they have been put more to the backburner and things started with the story.

And what did you guys think of the Della and Wiley parts? They were done kind of short on purpose, but I hope that you guys still liked them. (How WayneWayne doesn't completely back down from Riley and how Dak doesn't take 'no' for an answer).

Also, I wasn't planning on showing the release party of _The DarkElements_ in the next chapter, but would you guys like me to put it in? Or just have a reference to it at some point.

I hope you guys liked it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	29. When To Have Fun PART 1

**.:Chapter Twenty-Nine – When To Have Fun PART 1:.**

"_As a rock star, I have two instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to change the world. I have a chance to do both.__ " ~Bono_

* * *

><p>"Mate, wake up."<p>

Logan groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He put his arm up into the air and looked at his watch. It was only five o'clock in the morning. Logan rubbed his hands over his face and then turned onto his other side, pulling his blankets up to his shoulder. "The apartment better be burning down if you're waking me up this early."

"I could do that, if that's what you really want, mate."

Logan opened his eye and stared up at Julius as the older boy stood over him. He had a whistle dangling from his lips and looked like he was about to use it. When he noticed that Logan was awake, Julius smiled and lightly spit the whistle out of his mouth, allowing it to rest against his chest by its string.

"Come on, get up," Julius reached over and pulled Logan's blankets off of his body before walking over to Kendall's bed and doing the same. Unlike his siblings, Julius spoke only with an Australian accent. It sounded so weird to Logan, since he was so used to the other speaking in their American ones, but it was cool at the same time. Julius said something, which Logan guessed was in slang, under his breath as Kendall reacted quickly, sitting up, his hair sticking out in different directions, obvious disoriented. "We're going to be late."

"Late to what?" Kendall mumbled, pressing a palm against his left eye. He twisted his body to the side and grabbed his phone off of his bed-side table and illuminated it. Julius and Logan could see his green eyes widen in the glow of the light before he turned to Julius with an incredulous look on his face. "It's only five in the morning!"

"I know," Julius replied. He placed one hand on his hip, the other swinging the whistle around his finger. "The perfect time to get some training done. Now get into your gear and meet me at the front door in ten minutes. I need to go wake up the other guys too."

"I wonder if Gustavo put him up to this," Kendall said as he flopped back onto his pillow. He put his hands over his face. "It's definitely a Gustavo thing to do."

"Yeah," Logan climbed out of bed. "But since we're awake now, we should get going."

Kendall let out a sigh through his nose before climbing out of bed as well. He and Logan quickly changed into their workout gear and pulled on their running shoes and left their room. They found Carlos and James sitting on the couch, half asleep. Their heads kept bobbing as they tried to stay awake. Kendall yawned again and laughed as he tossed his towel into Carlos's face, immediately waking him up.

"Are you all ready to go?" The four boys turned to Julius, who was leaning by the front door, looking at a picture of Kendall, Katie, and Mrs. Knight from after a hockey game that Kendall had won. He turned back to the boys and gave them a warm smile. "We just have to wait for Katie," he said with a nod. "I accidentally woke her up and she asked if she could come too, so." He shrugged.

"That's fine," Kendall replied. "Just don't blame me if she complains about how tired she is."

"I'm used to it," Julius replied with a shrug. "So I'm guessing you blokes are wondering what I'm doing here." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Since we're leaving tomorrow to go back home to Sydney, Ronan thought that it would be a good idea if my brothers and sisters trained with you guys once more before they left."

"Then what are you doing here?" Carlos asked. "No offense," he added quickly.

"None taken, mate," Julius replied. "I wanted to get to know you guys, so I offered to take you down to the beach while the others get everything set up."

"Hey," Katie said as she walked out of her room, a gym bag slung over her shoulders. "I'm ready to go."

Kendall looked at her and did a double-take. He couldn't help but notice that she was a bit more put together than usual just to go to the gym. She had her long hair pulled back into a ponytail and she had a bit of make-up on her face. A little bit of eye shadow and lip-gloss. Kendall looked over at Logan, Carlos, and James and could tell from the looks on their faces that they noticed it as well. He opened his mouth to say something, but Julius cut him off.

"Cool, let's get going then." He twirled a pair of car keys around his finger and quietly opened the door to the apartment before sliding out.

Kendall closed his mouth and followed the others out of the apartment, closing the door behind him. He knew that if his mother woke up, if he closed the door too loudly, they wouldn't hear the end of it. His mother could be referred to as a 'mother bear' when it came to protecting her kids, but when it came to being woken up from her sleep, it would be like waking up an actual bear in the middle of hibernation, you would live to regret it. And being that it was that early in the morning, he didn't want to risk it. Julius led the boys and Katie out of the quiet lobby and into the Jacksons' black minivan.

Julius didn't hesitate to climb into the driver's seat. When he noticed that no one had followed him, he stopped and looked at them in confusion. Then his blue eyes showed clarity as he nodded once. "Relax," he said gently. "Robert is going to be held in jail for a while. At this point, all of his possessions have been given to us, its fine." He reached behind him and unlocked the side door before pulling it open.

Everyone else climbed in and they started their hour drive to the beach. Every now and then Julius would ask them some questions; what they were into, what kind of music they liked, sports, how long they had been in LA, if they missed Minnesota, things like that. Then they would ask him the same kind of questions in return. Unlike his siblings, he was very open when it came to what he was interested in and what he had experienced growing up, but if it was something he didn't want to answer, he would merely change the subject. They didn't dare ask him what he did while he knew that his brothers and sisters were being hurt; it would be rude and they didn't want to know the answer to it.

"So, I'll give you a few pointers to get my brothers and sisters to open up to you guys a bit more, because I know that they're really hard to get along with." Julius said suddenly. He started to drive with only his left hand, using his right to hold up a few fingers.

"Syd is easy, just treat him like you would treat anyone else, not noticing his age, and you've won him over. Patrick is just like any other guy, talk to him about sports and then you've got him. Noah is harder because he's so shy, for the most part he'll let Patrick talk for him, but if you continue talking to him, he'll eventually open up. Riley and Rhuben are the hardest, because they're really guarded around people they don't know. It may seem like they hate you, but they don't, if they did, they would let you know that they don't like you. For Riley, find something that you have in common and start there, it usually works. For Rhuben, I would suggest that you try and talk about music, other than their band, to try and win her over."

"Thanks for telling us that now," Carlos said, slightly sarcastically from the back.

Julius lowered his hands back to the steering wheel and gave a sheepish smile as he swerved lightly, quickly correcting himself. He looked into the rearview mirror and smiled again. "Sorry, I forgot that the driving laws here are different."

"So what's Sydney like?" Logan asked, draping his arms over the back of the passenger seat, where James was sitting. "I heard a lot about it, and we've all wanted to go there."

"It's basically everything that you've heard of," Julius replied. A wistful smile slid onto his face. "I mean, I've only been here for a month or so, but I miss it like crazy. Its warm all the time, the people are laid back, everyone's so nice. The food is great," he briefly looked over his shoulder. "You know, the portions aren't so big. Things like that, it's hardly a day that you couldn't go outside and play soccer or something."

"Is the surf as good as it sounds?" James added.

"Even better." Julius agreed. He flicked his hair out of his face, his eyes narrowing a bit as he turned onto another road. "But you should be able to get some good stuff here when the shark biscuits aren't around, though that's when it's really early or late if it's anything like Oz."

Katie then leaned forward over her seat as well. "Do you surf too?" She asked him. "Because I read online that Riley and Patrick really love it."

"We all surf, actually," Julius said. "We were a surfing family, Mum and Dad taught us how. But Rhuben and Noah like to wakeboard more than they surf, so that's why it seems like only Riles and Pat do it. I haven't surfed in a while, too busy with school."

"What grade are you in?" Kendall asked.

"It's a bit confusing if you're not used to the Australian schooling system," Julius said. He squinted his eyes as he thought for a moment. "But I'm eighteen, turning 19 in November, so…I'm finishing up my senior year of high school and I'm planning on going to the University of New Castle. It's about 2 hours away from home, so I can go back as much as I want, you know what I'm saying?." Julius sat up straight as he leaned forward over the steering wheel. "Oh, we're here."

Julius pulled into a parking space, honking the horn of the car to get his brothers' and sisters' attention. They were sitting on the back of a small black car and as soon as they saw him pull in, they leapt up and hurried over to the minivan.

"About time you got here," Rhuben said, placing her hands on her hips. "What took you so long? Wait, let me guess," she held up a finger and looked over at Carlos. "He was snoring, right?"

"Even louder than Patrick," Julius agreed. "Relax, Munchkin, it didn't take too long." He stretched and looked around as the others got out of the car. "The surf sounds strange." Julius observed. He scratched the back of his neck, not seeming to mind as his black hair was blown into his dark blue eyes.

"Flat," Riley agreed.

"Fo-flat, brah," Patrick said. "Glassy. But there's a low pressure front just out there. Supposed to be a long period swell. Instead it sounds like a lake." He frowned. "Guess we're going to have to wait until later to shred it."

"Damn," Noah muttered.

"My thought's exactly." Patrick agreed, slapping him on the shoulder. He then turned to Katie and smiled warmly. "Hey, didn't think we'd see you here today." He commented.

"Well, I was awake anyway," Katie replied with a shrug. "So I figured that I would come and work out with the guys today." She then noticed the car behind them and her eyes widened. "Awesome car, whose is it?" She asked eagerly.

"It's mine," Rhuben said modestly, raising a hand. "2009 Ford Fusion."

"No way," Logan said as he got closer. He looked over the car and then pouted as he turned to Riley. "Do you have one too?" He asked. She nodded. "Red, right?" She nodded again and Logan sighed loudly. "No fair, I only have my permit, when did you guys get your licenses?"

"Rhu-Rhu got hers on the first try," Sydney piped up. He then snickered behind his hand before pointing over at Riley, who scowled. "It took Riley three tries until she got it. Apparently the cones didn't move out of her way fast enough." He turned and hurried behind Noah as Riley reached out to hit him on the head. He poked his head out from behind Noah's back and stuck his tongue out, causing Riley to roll her eyes in reply.

Carlos let out a wistful sigh as she walked around the car. He wished that Logan would hurry up and stop being such a worry-wart so he could get his license. If that didn't happen any time soon, he wished that his parents would take back their rule that he couldn't start driving until he was eighteen. He knew that it probably had to do with the fact that they had been extremely overprotective of him when he fell out of the tree. Well, James pushed him, but all his parents knew was that he was hurt and that he needed to be safe. Hence why he was stuck wearing the helmet, but he grew to like it, saw it as sort of a fashion statement, and didn't want to part from it. Carlos let out a loud, whiny sound as he threw himself onto the hood of Rhuben's car.

"Don't ask," Kendall said to the curious expressions before he turned to Julius, who was busy pulling some things from the back of the minivan with Sydney's help. "So what is it that we're going to be doing today?" He asked. "Beach runs."

Julius twisted his mouth to the side. "I have a bit of a confession to make," he said after a minute. "I lied about why we're here today." He rolled his eyes when Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney gave over-the-top, exaggerated gasps. "I wanted you guys to have some fun," he explained. "You've had nothing but drama going on, basically since they moved out here," Julius reached out and mussed Sydney's hair. "So I wanted you to be able to relax before you went on tour."

"If that's the case," James leaned over and grabbed a volleyball from the trunk of the minivan. "Maybe you guys could each us how to play." He spun the ball in his hands. "We never have before."

"DarkElements versus Big Time Rush!" Patrick declared as he leapt forward, grabbing onto the ball. He quickly took off, out of the parking lot onto the beach. Noah and Sydney quickly followed him.

"Julius, come on, you have to play!" Riley said, grabbing onto her older brother's hand. He used his free hand to close the trunk.

"I was planning on watching you guys play, actually." He replied.

"No, Monkey, you have to," Rhuben insisted, grabbing onto his other hand. "For old time's sake. Please?" She exchanged glances with Riley and the two started to plead him over and over again, in unison, to play with them.

"Sometimes I wonder why I missed you guys," Julius said, mostly joking as he was dragged off onto the beach.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen them so lively before." James commented as he, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and Katie followed them onto the beach. "It's a welcome change, of course. I was beginning to think that they didn't show any emotion at all." He smiled. "Maybe now we can actually enjoy our tour with them." James walked over to the volleyball court that was set up and went up to the net, looking it over before lightly tugging on it. "So what's the point of the game?" He asked the Jacksons, as they were already set up on their side. "Not to let it touch the ground, right?"

"Basically the point is that you are trying to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court." Logan explained.

"A player on one of the teams begins a 'rally' by serving the ball, from behind the back boundary line of the court, over the net, and into the receiving team's court. The receiving team must not let the ball be grounded within their court. The team may touch the ball up to 3 times but individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively. Typically, the first two touches are used to set up for an attack, an attempt to direct the ball back over the net in such a way that the serving team is unable to prevent it from being grounded in their court." Sydney added.

"Alright, let's play then!" Katie said, rubbing her hands together. "We're _so_ gonna win!" She added, turning to Kendall.

"Yeah, we are!" Kendall returned, raising his hands and giving his little sister a double high-five. "No one can beat us."

"Oh, he's so going to eat those words," Riley laughed to herself as Patrick passed her the ball. She spun it once in her hands and then stopped, resting it against her hip. "Uh, the teams are uneven." She pointed out.

"I'll keep score." Sydney offered before hurrying off of his side of the court. "I'm too short to play, anyway."

"Go ahead and serve it, Monster." Julius called to Riley, backing up a few spaces so he, Rhuben, and Riley were towards the back and Patrick and Noah were at the front of the court. Julius, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney crouched down, their hands resting on their knees as they waited for the game to start.

Riley spun the ball in her hands once, took a step back and threw the ball into the air with her left hand. She pulled back her right hand and punched the volleyball when it came back down, sending the ball over the net. Carlos raced forward and raised his arms above his head, hitting the ball. But he hit it at an angle, so it went spinning off to the side. Katie quickly scrambled over and knocked the ball back over her head. James then raced forward and jumped up, spiking the ball over the net. Noah reacted quickly and dove to the side, smacking it up into the arm with his right hand before falling into the sand. Patrick set the ball with a quick tap of his fingers, and Rhuben moved forward and jumped up, spiking the ball back over the net.

It hit Carlos in the face before it bounced onto the ground and rolled away. Carlos moved his hands over his face and let out a yell as James, Kendall, Logan, and Katie laughed. Rhuben cheered and gave Riley a high-five before getting a hug from her brothers.

"Are you ok, Carlos?" Sydney asked as he drew a line in the sand, representing the point.

"I'm fine," Carlos removed his hands from his face; his skin was tinted red. "But it feels like my face is on fire."

"Then you should have moved out of the way," Rhuben replied with a shrug.

"Nice to see your concern for him, Bella." Logan rolled his eyes.

James laughed as he jogged over to the discarded ball and picked it up. He turned and held his hand over his face as the sun started to rise over the horizon. It was his favorite part of the day. Sometimes he would wake up early and quietly sneak out of the apartment just so he could sit in the PalmWoods Park and watch the sunrise. It was the start of a new day and he couldn't get over how the colors; the pinks, yellows, blues, and purple intertwined with each other as the sky lightened and the sun moved up above the horizon. He would watch until the sun was halfway up the sky. It was the only time that he truly got to himself; not that he minded being around his best friends, but he needed to get away every once in a while. This time though, he was on the beach, which was quickly starting to become one of his favorite places, and he was with his friends.

He didn't know how it was going to get any better.

Yes he did, being able to achieve his dream with his best friends. That was how everything was going to get better. And at this point, it was starting to come true. They weren't there yet, but it was happening. He could feel it.

"James, come on!" Katie called impatiently, stamping her foot on the ground. "Let's keep playing!"

"Chill, Katie, we're not in a rush," Patrick chided her. He crossed his arms over his chest before looking at his watch. "We have another hour, tops." He added.

"Do you have to be somewhere?" Katie asked, turning to him.

Patrick nodded and held his hands up as James tossed the ball back over to him. "We have to go over some scheduling stuff for our promotion of _Too Close for Comfort _back home," he smiled as beside him, Noah opened his mouth and mimed sticking his finger down his throat.

"I'm sure that you guys are going to have a good time," Kendall reassured them, trying to sound as positive as possible.

"Obviously you haven't been on a tight promotion schedule then," Rhuben moved her strand of purple hair from her face. "Because it's exhausting."

"Hey," Katie held up her hands, already feeling the tension starting again.

She knew that they couldn't help it, but the two bands always seemed to compare themselves to each other. Big Time Rush in an insecure kind of way, as they were a new band, and the DarkElements, most likely, doing it subconsciously. They were used to Robert pushing them so hard, trying to make them be the best band out there that they continued to do it without realizing it. The main difference being that when they did it now, their voices held a tone of bitterness.

"Let's just play, alright." She said. "We came here to have fun today, and I plan on having fun." She looked back over at Noah and he gave her a warm smile, causing her to blush and turned her head away, making sure that her hair covered her face. When she risked a glance back at him, he was looking around, his smile from his face; as if he hadn't looked at her in the first place.

They continued to play volleyball until the Jacksons ended up winning 15 to 2. Kendall, being the most competitive out of all of them, was really mad at first, but then he ended up cooling down, once he realized that he did, indeed have fun. But what he think the enjoyed the most out of playing volleyball that day, instead of working out, was watching the Jacksons have a good time. It was obvious that the mere presence of their brother just made them that much happier.

Even when they were dropped off at the PalmWoods, they could hear them chattering away to their brother as they went to go back to Ronan's apartment to get showered and changed before going to the studio.

"That was awesome," Logan remarked as they walked through the front doors of the lobby. "But," he ran a hand through his hair, allowing sand to fall to his feet. "I could have done without having to dive to the ground so much to save the ball."

"I think that was the funnies part," Katie teased, smiling sweetly at him. Logan stuck his tongue out at her and Katie stuck hers out in reply before turning to Carlos. "What's up with that look on your face?" She asked, noticing a smile that had appeared. He started to hop back and forth from one foot to the other, as if he had to go to the bathroom, but he had a large smile on his face. "It's really creepy." She added.

"I just got the _best_ idea," he said.

"Oh," Katie gave him an innocent look. "You finally realized that you need to have your head examined."

"Katie," Kendall put an arm around Katie's shoulders and pulled her up into his arms, looking down at her. "We know that he needs to have his head examined, but he needs to be one that goes and says he wants to have it done." He gave a sly smile. "We can't help him if he doesn't want help himself."

"Ha ha," Carlos stopped hopping up and down. "But I _did _have a good idea." He clasped his hands together. "They're leaving to go back home tomorrow morning right?" He didn't bother to let them agree with him before he continued. "Right. And I know it's not Friday night, but, why don't we invite _all_ of them to sleepover in our apartment?"

Carlos held his arms out in a 'ta-da' kind of way, as if he had just jumped out of a cake. When he got no response, his smile slowly faded and he lowered his arms to his sides. His shoulders slumped and he lightly kicked at the ground. "Bad idea?" he asked meekly.

"I can give you two reasons why that's a bad idea," Logan held up two of his fingers. "And both of them have to do with James." He added, pointing over to his taller friend, who looked offended. "Do you really think that Mrs. Knight is going to allow them all to sleepover? I don't mean to be negative, but I'm not sure that she would like having Riley and Rhuben there."

"What do you think I'm going to do? Jump them?" James asked. He smacked Logan on the back of the head. "Give me more credit than that."

"I'm just thinking like a parent." Logan defended himself.

"No," Kendall said slowly, a thoughtful look on his face. He shifted Katie up so he was holding onto her with his right arm, gesturing with his left. "That might not be a bad idea, actually." He rubbed his chin. "What better way to say that we want to help them move on from their past than to help them have fun before they leave to work."

"Well, here's one thing that you're forgetting," Logan reminded him. "No one's been taken in for questioning yet." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't you think that that's just going to counteract what we do to make them relax?"

"So we can do something for them then too," Kendall shrugged, undaunted. "Now," he snapped his fingers. "All we have to do is figure out how to get a way to get mom to agree to this."

"I have an idea," Katie offered with a bright smile.

* * *

><p>Mrs. Knight turned from the TV as she heard a knock on the door to the apartment. She looked at the TV and le tout a sigh, silently wondering what she did to have her morning of peace and quiet ruined, before she turned it off. There was another knock as she gracefully pulled herself off of the couch and walked over to the front door. She stood on her tip-toes and looked through the peep-hole before grabbing the doorknob, quickly backing up.<p>

"Ronan, what are you doing here?" She asked her friend. "Is everything ok?"

Ronan held his hands up, trying to calm her down. "Everything's fine," he replied calmly. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything."

"You didn't scare me," Mrs. Knight shook her head. "It's just that the last time that someone knocked on my door like this, it was the police, telling me that my son and his friends had gotten into a fight with security when James was doing his audition to come out here." She waved a hand around the apartment.

"I know," Ronan grinned. "Gustavo told me the story. Apparently it was Kendall's telling him off as well as him fighting security that caused him to pick him."

"Frankly, I don't know if that's a good thing." Mrs. Knight joked.

"That he fought with security?" Ronan asked as he shoved her hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. He gave her a knowing look, as if he could tell that it wasn't the first time that Kendall had gotten in trouble with authority.

"No," Mrs. Knight gave a pleasant smile. "Telling off Gustavo. If it wasn't for that, I don't think that my stress levels would be so high." She held up a hand. "Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the boys and am happy that they're living their dream, but sometimes I wonder if it's even worth it. I mean, what if their CD doesn't do well." She the lightly hit herself on the forehead. "Oh, I'm sorry, please come in."

She took a step back and Ronan followed her inside. He looked around, nodding as he took in the decorations and everything. He refused her offer of coffee, opting to continue to stand in the doorway of the apartment.

"Is it so wrong that part of me wishes that they don't do well so I can go back to what was normal?" Mrs. Knight asked as she walked over to the orange couch and picked up her discarded mug. She tested the warmth of the mug in her hands before taking a sip, it was still warm.

"No, it's not," Ronan replied helpfully. "People that come out here can get shell-shocked really easily." He shrugged. "If they get homesick, they wonder if what they're doing is worth giving up their old life, it's normal that you guys are starting to wonder if you should continue to do what you're doing or go back home."

"No, it's just me," Mrs. Knight said. She sighed. "I just don't want the boys to get their hopes up and have their dreams fail."

"They're going to go far, Kacy," Ronan said firmly. "We wouldn't be working with them if we didn't think so. Even Gustavo thinks that they're going to do well; he doesn't say it out loud, but he thinks it. And Kelly has always been supporting them since they got out here. But," he paused as he studied her. "Are you sure it's not just because you're homesick?"

"That's probably it," Mrs. Knight agreed. "It's the longest I've been from home, and I wonder if I even fit in here. All the women here are so confident with themselves, and they have friends. The only 'girlfriend' that I have here is Kelly, and that's only because I'm the boys' 'Momager'. Back home I had Brooke, Sylvia, and Joanna." She quickly explained when Ronan's eyebrows lowered. "James's, Carlos's, and Logan's mothers."

"Ah," Ronan nodded.

"But the guys are adjusting well, and Katie is finally making some friends, I don't know what to do with…" Mrs. Knight trailed off as she studied Ronan. "I'm sorry, you came by to tell me something and I'm the one that's going on about my problems."

"Oh," Ronan's eyebrows rose. "Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted to come have breakfast with me, Gustavo, and Kelly." He gestured behind him with his shoulder. "I've got something that I wanted to talk to you guys about and I thought that now would be a good time as any."

"Oh," Mrs. Knight thought for a moment. "Yeah, sure. Let me just get my purse and leave the kids a note." She turned and hurried into her room. She put on her shoes, checked her hair and make-up in the mirror, and grabbed her purse off of the back of the door. She walked back out to the main area of the apartment and quickly wrote a note to the boys and Katie, telling her where they were going to be, before following Ronan out of the apartment. "So where are we going?" she asked, locking the door to the apartment.

"To a coffee place that I know," Ronan replied. "They have some good breakfast food there, I like the muffins and the scones the most, but they serve eggs and stuff too." He added.

"So what is it that you wanted to talk about exactly?" Mrs. Knight asked as she and Ronan left the PalmWoods and walked through the parking lot. "Does it have to do with the Jacksons?" she asked gently. She knew that she was right from the look that flashed across his face. "Are things ok with you guys?"

"I guess," Ronan said hesitantly. "I mean, they don't sleep well, that's to be expected. They're kind of withdrawn too, better that Julius is here for now, but they keep moving quietly, as if they expect to be jumped on when they turn a corner. They don't tell me right away when they break something on accident. It'll take a while for them to move out of their old habits, but things are fine, I guess." He pressed the unlock button on his key ring.

Mrs. Knight looked up at the sound of the squawk and her mouth dropped open when she noticed the silver Mercedes Benz that was parked in a parking space. "What? Does everyone in LA have a fancy car?"

"Not all of them," Ronan said as he continued walking over to it. "But, that's the price you pay for being a famous music producer." He smiled at her as he got in.

"Way to be modest," Mrs. Knight teased him, getting over her shock. She walked over to the passenger side and got in, lightly startled at how low the car was to the ground.

"I'm modest about everything but my cars," Ronan replied. He buckled up and turned on the car, carefully pulling out of the parking lot and driving to the restaurant. "They're the only thing that I brag about. So, I heard that you used to be a waitress when you were back in Minnesota." He said. "Would you want to go back to that if things don't work out here?"

"I'd look for a better job," Mrs. Knight replied honestly. "Being the boys' manager, I could put that on my resume and get something. I'm just thinking of back-ups, just in case." She continued, now sounding like she was talking to herself. "And the guys might get homesick, that's why we planned on going back to Minnesota after the tour. I'm sure that the guys would like to go back home for a little visit. I know Katie's excited."

"So she can see her old friends?" Ronan guessed.

"No," Mrs. Knight pulled her hair behind her ears. "So she can sell some of the boys' to their fans. They did a show back home after they put out their _B.T.R. _CD and everyone in St. Paul went nuts over them. Hometown support you know? I said she could do it only if she gets permission from the guys first and if she gives eighty percent of it into her college fund."

"Wow, Mother of the Year." Ronan said sarcastically. He leaned out of the way as Mrs. Knight reached over to hit him on the arm.

They drove for another twenty minutes before he parallel parked into a parking space and shut off the car. Ronan slid the keys into his pocket and the two got out of the car. He locked the door and led her way into the Nordstrom Café & Coffee Bar.

"OVER HERE!"

Mrs. Knight jumped and turned to see Gustavo and Kelly sitting at a table. Gustavo had one hand over his head, waving it. His outburst had caused other patrons nearby to jump and look over at him as well. Kelly held her hands over her face, but Gustavo didn't seem to mind. Ronan chuckled as the two walked over to them.

"You seem a bit embarrassed, Kelly," He remarked as the two sat down.

"Apparently Gustavo doesn't remember the conversation new had about manners," Kelly replied. It came out through gritted teeth as she sat up straight to greet her friends. "Don't be surprised if we get kicked out."

"Manners Schmanners," Gustavo waved it off. "People shouldn't eat out if they don't expect at least _one_ person that they don't want to dine with." He picked up his menu and started to look over it.

"Hey Kacy, you look great." Kelly greeted Mrs. Knight. "That jacket is to die for!" She added, pointing to Mrs. Knight's overcoat."

"Thanks," Mrs. Knight smiled. "I got it back in Minnesota."

"Speaking of, when are you guys planning on going back?" Kelly whipped out her PDA and started to type into it. "That way Gustavo and I can work on some things while you all are gone."

"I'm sure that you can take that time off, Kelly," Ronan said with a slight laugh.

"No way," Kelly shook her head. "Last time I tried to take the day off was when Gustavo talked me into helping him murder Matthew McConaughey's mailbox." She put her PDA down. "I'm not risking going to jail, _again._" She then turned to Gustavo. "Not like _someone_ that I could mention." She added sharply.

Gustavo just grunted and continued to look over his menu.

"I don't know the dates yet," Mrs. Knight told Kelly. "But as soon as we book the flights, I'll let you know."

"Great," Kelly turned off her PDA and set it on the table. She let out a sigh, leaning back in her chair. "So what are you guys up to when you get to Australia? I bet you're looking forward to getting tanned again." She added.

"Frankly, with how much I go back and forth from Australia to California, I'm surprised I don't have a year-round-tan like they do." Ronan remarked as he looked at his forearm. "But we have some TV interview lines up so far, and then some press things, and a newspaper interview with their former schools as well as some live chats. Julius and I are going to get together later and figure out which ones sound better before we go to them with it."

"What does Julius do while he's out here?" Mrs. Knight asked. "I hope you're not working him too hard, he's taking a break from his schoolwork."

"Actually, he's out here to make sure his brothers and sisters are ok," Ronan corrected her. "Which is what I needed, I haven't seen them so happy. But they're going to be depressed when they have to leave him back in Australia when they go promote their stuff in the US." He flipped his brown hair from his green eyes. "But he's working as my assistant right now, to make sure that I don't go crazy. He always does whenever he gets the time."

"That's nice of him," Kelly said with a nod. "But I thought that music wasn't his thing anymore." She turned to Mrs. Knight. "He used to be part of the DarkElements, went solo for a little while, and then quit when he decided it wasn't for him."

"Oh," Mrs. Knight nodded.

"It's not," Ronan agreed. "Not really anyway. He gives his opinion on some of their music every now and then, and he helps them with scales or something. But he doesn't make music anymore. I think he misses it, but it's not what he wants to do."

"Alright," Gustavo interrupted, slapping his menu down on to the table. "What is it that you want?"

"Excuse me?" Ronan blinked once.

"Just spit it out," Gustavo snapped, impatient. "What is it that you really called us over here for?" He pointed with his fork down at his empty plate. "It couldn't be just for our company and the food isn't that great, so it couldn't be for that, either. So tell us what's up," he pointed the fork at Ronan. "And no one gets hurt."

Mrs. Knight and Kelly rolled their eyes at Gustavo's antics, but they couldn't help but be curious as well. They had never been invited to have breakfast together before and it happened all of a sudden. Ronan didn't even give a good excuse as to why he wanted to go out for breakfast so badly, but there _had_ to be a reason. Ronan's face said it all; he looked like a deer caught in the headlights at Gustavo's accusation.

"Alright, fine. I need your guys' support," Ronan said slowly. "Because, I want to adopt them."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **(If you're confused, the part with them at the beach happens at the same time as Mrs. Knight going out for breakfast with Ronan, Gustavo, and Kelly. So she leaves the PalmWoods after they leave and they get back before she does.)

Wow, it took me 29 chapters to do the first _ten_ chapters of BTRivalry. I don't know if that's good or pathetic. Either way, I hope that you guys liked the first arc of the whole story. As you can see, this will be a pretty long story if I'm putting all three originals in it. But that just means that there's more that Rhu and I mentioned in newer stories that we can explain/show here (and in the new 'Origins' story that Rhu _might _be working on).

The second arc starts with BTR's and DE's sleepover. I was originally going to put it all in this chapter, but I figured that it would be better if I split it up. Also, if anyone is confused, DE aren't even close to being open with BTR yet, but whenever they're around their brother (Julius) they act more like their real selves, which is why you see part of it here (and some more of it in the next chapter). There's still a long way to go with this story (_stories_ if you count the other two).

I hope you guys like it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	30. When To Have Fun PART 2

**.:Chapter Thirty – When To Have Fun PART 2:.**

"_As a rock star, I have two instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to change the world. I have a chance to do both.__ " ~Bono_

* * *

><p>"Ok, so the first thing that we have to do is convince Mom to let us do this, and then get the Jacksons to go along with it too," Kendall said as he looked over his check list.<p>

He, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie were in apartment 2J, all leaning over the dinner table, looking at the check-list that Kendall had quickly drawn up for their sleepover that night. They had everything that they could think of on the list, from different ways to convince Mrs. Knight to let them to do it, to thinking of ways of keeping Bitters from barging into their apartment to give them another strike to kick them out. (So far they had two of them and as Logan said, it's better safe than sorry.) They even had a list of the kind of food that they would want to eat.

"We don't really have much time to get this done, but the faster we do it, the faster we can arrange everything. I mean," he grimaced as he scratched the back of his neck. "We're going to need more food…and I'm not really sure about how Mom would feel about spending more money on it."

"No problem," Carlos said with a bright smile. He reached over and tapped James on the arm. "James and I have it covered."

"Really?" Logan looked skeptical. "How do you plan on paying for it?"

"Like I said," Carlos insisted, sticking out his tongue. "We have it covered."

"And if anyone's allergic to anything," James whipped an issue of _PopTiger_ out from underneath the table. He paused, glancing at the cover. "Have you guys noticed that Dak always seems to be on the cover of these things?" He asked.

"Could you get to your point?" Logan asked.

James blinked once, slowly looking over at Logan. The corner of his lips curled. "Excuse me for making light conversation. If I didn't know any better, I would say that you were jealous that our _friend_ was on the cover," he changed the subject as Katie and Carlos laughed and Kendall smiled. "Anyway, if they have any allergies, we can find out through here."

"This isn't another one of those articles about something strange like, their secret recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup is it?" Kendall asked skeptically.

"No," James said defiantly. He turned the magazine around and pointed to a list, a picture of Sydney, from their Photoshoot back in New York sitting at the side of it. "Here is a list of their favorite foods, and if they have allergies, it wouldn't be on here. So if we stick to this, then we won't have a problem."

"Problem," Logan leaned forward and pointed to the magazine. "What's a Tim Tam?"

"A Dum Dum maybe?" James shrugged. "I don't know."

"Idiot," Katie muttered under her breath as she rolled her eyes. She turned to Kendall. "Ok, Big Bro, now you and I need to go and convince Mom that they can stay over here with us." She said.

Kendall raised an eyebrow. "What do you have in mind, Baby Sister?"

"I'll let you know when Mom gets back from breakfast with Ronan and them," Katie said and hopped down from her chair. "That will give you guys," she turned to Logan, Carlos, and James. "Plenty of time to go out and get the food, so either way, Mom will have a harder time saying 'no'." She placed her hands on her hips when the guys didn't move. "Uh, what are you waiting for?" She clapped her hands together repeatedly. "Let's move, move, move!"

Kendall laughed loudly as James, Logan, and Carlos leapt to their feet and ran into each other as they tried to get out of the apartment, or face Katie's wrath. Katie smiled smugly as she crossed her arms over her chest, turning back to her brother. She then gave a bow as Kendall laughed again.

"Katie, you should become a drill sergeant," Kendall remarked as he flipped shut his pocket notebook and tucked it into the pocket of his flannel shirt. "Because you can scare anyone."

"That'd be my dream job," Katie admitted. She then reached out a hand and she and Kendall did their secret handshake. "Now come on, let's go find Mom." She led the way out of the apartment and into the lobby, looking around. She couldn't help but notice Bitters watching them warily. "You'd think at this point that Bitters would stop trying to figure out what we're up to, he's never going to get it before we actually do it."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Kendall agreed, mussing her hair. "It would probably keep him from being so stressed."

"Bitters won't stop being stressed until you leave the PalmWoods," Jo teased as she walked over to the two with a bright smile directed towards Kendall. "So what is it that you guys are up to this time?" She asked, reaching out and taking his hand in hers.

"Well," Kendall paused for dramatic effect. "Because the Jacksons are leaving to go back home to finish promoting their album, we thought that it would be a good idea if we had them over for a sleepover tonight." He said.

"Oh," Jo's head moved back as she looked at him in surprise. Her eyebrows lowered in confusion and she blinked for a few seconds, before letting go of Kendall's hand. She slid her hands into her back pockets and tilted her head to the side. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," Katie jumped in, hoping to save her brother from the tense situation. "It was Carlos's idea, actually," she said, mentally giving a sigh of relief when Jo's expression turned to one of understanding. "Because we really want to them to feel welcome and that they have friends to come back to when these guys go on tour."

"Um, don't you think we're a little too old for coed sleepovers?" Jo asked. She then gave Kendall a pointed look. "And, I don't remember getting invited to it either."

Once again, Katie jumped in. "Well, we weren't sure how Mom would take it," she said. "And because it's the first time they're asking for a co-ed sleepover, they didn't think that it would be a good idea to invite you, Camille, and Stephanie," she motioned to her brother, who was nodding rapidly at this point. "Especially because you're dating the guys." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I mean, do you really think that your Dad would like the idea of you sleeping over in Kendall's apartment?"

Jo grimaced, showing her teeth. "Definitely not." She agreed.

"So you're not mad?" Kendall asked, just to be sure.

"No," Jo smiled at him once more. "I was going to tell you that I couldn't make a date tonight anyway," she then gave a little, excited hop. "My agent suggested that I go on a few auditions while we wait for my singing career to take off and I have an audition for a short film, so I need to run over my lines."

"That's great," Kendall cried, grinning as well. He then smirked. "So that means that Camille is going to be running your lines with you all night?" He guessed and then shrugged when Jo nodded. "Just, try not to get too impatient with her." He said.

"I'll try," Jo laughed in reply. She stepped forward. "Goodbye kiss?" she asked sweetly.

Kendall smiled back and leaned forward, giving her a quick kiss before she waved at the two and walked away. Kendall watched her leave and then turned to Katie, who was staring at him, an eyebrows raised, arms over her chest. Kendall's eyes shifted back and forth before he stood up straight, his arms at his sides.

"What?" he asked.

"Goodbye kiss?" Katie demanded. "Really?"

"What?!" Kendall said defensively. "It's romantic!"

"It's pathetic," Katie insisted. She rolled her eyes as she turned to the front of the lobby. She reached out and shook Kendall's arm when she spotted their mother walking through the front door. "Look, there's Mom, just follow my lead." She grabbed onto Kendall's hand and dragged her brother over to their mother. "Mom!" Katie greeted her sweetly, wrapping her arms over her waist. "I missed you."

Mrs. Knight took one look at Katie, and then looked at Kendall. She turned her gaze towards the ceiling before grabbing onto her daughter's shoulders and gently pushing her back. "What do you want?" She asked.

"Well, Lizzie and I were talking earlier and were saying that we never really got a chance to hang out," Katie explained. "So, I invited her to sleepover at the apartment tonight, is that ok?" She asked eagerly.

"Yeah," Mrs. Knight smiled warmly. "That's fine. I'm glad that you have a friend that you can do that with."

"But," Katie continued. "Kendall was saying that they weren't going to be able to have our Friday night tradition with the Jacksons again, before they go back home, tomorrow." She said. Mrs. Knight nodded slowly, looking suspicious. "So, he figured, why not invite them over to spend the night tonight, too?"

"Wait a minute," Mrs. Knight held up her hand. "All of them?" she asked.

"Yep," Kendall and Katie nodded.

"I don't think so," Mrs. Knight said sternly. "Not just because of what they've gone through, but because of how many people I'd be looking after. I mean," she rubbed her forehead. "I can hardly handle you all by myself, now you want me to house six more people?"

"It's just for the night, Mom," Kendall encouraged her. "Besides, the guys and I, you let us housesit for Gustavo for a night by ourselves and things went fine."

"If I remember correctly, you destroyed his house." Mrs. Knight reminded him. "And _I _had to help you clean it up."

"That's true," Kendall conceded. "But, we were all responsible enough to ask you for help. Besides, how hard could it be? You just, put all of the food out and we'll hang out and eat and stuff." He put his arm around his mother's shoulders. "Then we'll go to sleep, in our own beds, and they'll stay in sleeping bags out in the main area." He shot Katie a look, saying he needed help.

"Oh," Katie spoke up. "And we'll clean up whatever messes we make, and we'll try not to be too loud." She pointed at her mother. "And we'll go to bed early, because getting a lot of sleep is really healthy." She smiled, showing off her teeth.

"I still don't know," Mrs. Knight hesitated. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I wouldn't know what to do if one of them has a nightmare, or if something else happens." She crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not like we've ever dealt with this before."

"Then…" Kendall snapped his fingers. "Maybe Ronan can talk them into it," he suggested. "Riley and Rhuben know how to deal with it, how to help their brothers with what's going on, at least, I think they would at this point. So if he thinks it's a good idea, I'm sure they'll listen to him."

Mrs. Knight sighed as she reached into her purse for her phone. "Alright," she finally agreed. "But I can't make any promises."

Kendall punched the air with his fist and turned to look at Katie, who winked in reply.

* * *

><p>"Your total for today is $125," the cashier said to Carlos, Logan, and James, who stood in the line, after getting their groceries bagged.<p>

Logan's eyes bugged out, James looked back and forth between the total and the bags of food, and Carlos's face twitched a little bit. Carlos definitely didn't think that it was going to take that much money just to get some frozen food, ice cream, and a bunch of candy. That wasn't even including the price of what the pizza they were going to order was going to be.

Logan grabbed onto Carlos's sleeve. "How do you expect us to pay for this?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, we're not made of money," James added. "Not yet, we're not rich enough."

"Relax," Carlos pushed Logan's hand off of his shoulder. "I told you, I got this covered." He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a plastic card, handing it over to the cashier.

"What's what?" James asked.

Carlos shushed him, keeping his eyes on the cashier. He watched as she picked up the card and slowly pulled it through the card swiper. The three watched as the machine made stuttering sounds. Carlos let out a sigh of relief as the cashier handed Carlos back the back as well as a receipt.

"Sign here," she instructed.

Carlos quickly did as he was told and handed back the copy of the receipt before taking the card and his receipt and shoving it into his pocket. He, James, and Logan grabbed onto the bags and picked them up, hurrying out of the grocery store.

"Not that I'm not glad that we got the food," James said as they started to walk back to the PalmWoods. "But how did you pay for it?"

"I just used Gustavo's debit card," Carlos replied with a smile.

"You what?" Logan hurried to stand in front of Carlos, glaring at him. "Don't you know that using someone else's card can be considered a federal offense? You could go to jail, you know."

"No I won't," Carlos replied, his smile still on his face. Not even Logan's freaking out to make him worried. "Because when we get out next paycheck, I'll just pay Gustavo back. He'll understand, we'll even laugh about it."

"He'll laugh all right," Logan said as he followed Carlos and James. "He'll laugh maniacally when the police officers ask where he hid our bodies."

Logan shook his head at the thought. It wasn't even that he wasn't sure that they would get away with it, it was that no matter what they did; Kelly always seemed to know that something was wrong. It was either woman's intuition, like she always explained that it was, or that they just weren't as sneaky as they originally thought. He shifted the bag of food in his arms, trying to get a frozen box from releasing the cold into his skin. He couldn't help but smile. Even if they were going to get caught by Gustavo (and rightfully punished) it was going to be worth it, to make sure that his friends were happy.

"Hey, guys," Carlos reached out and pointed down on the other side of the street, effectively causing James and Logan to stop walking or else they would have walked right into him. He squinted his eyes as he tilted his head to the side. "Does that guy over there kind of look like Kendall's Dad?"

"What?" James laughed as he turned to see who Carlos was pointing to. Logan craned his neck to the side as well. A tall man with blonde hair was holding onto a briefcase, talking into a cell phone as he paced in a circle. "Well," James said slowly, studying the man. He could see the resemblance, the thicker eyebrows, and the strong face. "He _does_...kind of look like Mr. Knight."

"Mr. Knight moved away when Kendall was, like, six, why would he come out to Los Angeles of all places?" Logan asked, trying to think rationally. "I mean, yeah, he's a lawyer and yeah, people out here have a lot of cases that they need to lawyers to help with, but still that doesn't mean that he's his Dad." But Logan couldn't help but be a bit…surprised at the resemblance from the man to Kendall. There was the possibility that it was Mr. Knight. No one knew where he went after he left Minnesota, so he could be anywhere at that point.

James sucked in a breath. "Anyway," he shifted the bag that was in his arms. "Let's get this back to the crib before the ice cream melts."

"Yeah," Carlos agreed with a nod.

The three boys started walking back to the PalmWoods once more, trying hard not to look back behind them. Just so if it was Mr. Knight, they didn't have to worry about hiding it from Kendall.

* * *

><p>"They want us to sleepover at their apartment?" Rhuben asked Ronan skeptically, her eyebrows rising. When he nodded, she lowered them again. "Don't you think that there are a few problems with that idea?"<p>

"Besides the obvious?" Ronan asked with a laugh as he rested his hands on the back of his black leather couch and leaned on them. "Not really," he admitted. "I think that it would be a good idea for you guys to do this; especially right before you leave tomorrow." He gave a mocking smile. "I'll have the apartment to myself for a while."

"You're forgetting Julius," Patrick pointed out, from where he was lying on the floor.

"He's already finished packing and said that he'd be back late tonight," Ronan said with a wave of his hand. "So it'd be like he wasn't even here." He stood up straight and looked around his apartment. He couldn't help but notice that ever since the Jacksons had moved in it wasn't as neat as it used to be. Not to say that he wasn't messy, but it was a bit more unorganized than usual. It didn't bother him, he just couldn't miss it. "Why don't you want to go?" he asked.

"Guys have sick minds, you know that?" Riley asked. She was sitting in a chair, her knees brought up to her chest, playing a handheld video game. Noah was squeezed in the chair with her, watching her play.

"Yet you girls still manage to sleep with them," He reminded her in his quiet voice.

"Sleep _with_, not _sleep_ with. Or _sleep_ with, not sleep _with_." Riley corrected him in a mumble, her eyes still on the game. "Whichever one involves me _not _having to kick a guy in the balls."

"Language," Ronan reminded her quickly. He licked his lips, already making up his mind. "You're going." He said firmly.

Sydney laughed. "Way to be parental, Ronan." He said with a teasing smile. "If I didn't know any better, I would think that you were being serious." He stood up from the floor; pushing Patrick away from his laptop with his left foot as he used his right one to close the lid. "Nice one."

Ronan ignored the annoyance and hurt that rushed through his body. Not that any of them would have noticed. When Sydney had pushed Patrick away from him, Patrick had immediately grabbed onto his baby brother and started to tickle him, getting Noah in on the fight and having Riley and Rhuben sitting off on the sidelines, cheering for one of the boys to win. He smiled and laughed, as he usually did at their antics.

"You need to be ready in an hour," Ronan continued, getting their attention. He paused when the play-fighting stopped and the Jacksons frowned. "What is it?" he asked, knowing something was up.

"Um," Sydney wrung his hands together. "What if something happens?" he asked quietly.

"Like a nightmare or something," Noah added when he noticed Ronan's confused look.

"The same thing that you guys did to deal with it before," Ronan said helpfully. "You help each other."

The Jacksons stayed silent for a few moments before Sydney spoke up again. "We did say that we'd help them with their song," Sydney reminded them, putting his hands on his hips.

"No, Syd, _you _promised that we would help them with their song," Rhuben pointed out. "We didn't say anything about that."

Sydney rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"He's right though," Patrick got to his feet. "As annoying as that is," he added, shooting Sydney a look, causing him to stick his tongue out. "Plus, its part of our contract, we said that we'd help them when they needed it." He smirked. "And the guys do need it."

"They're song _Oh Yeah_ wasn't that bad," Noah defended them. He then bobbed his head back and forth. "It was ok, kind of a generic pop song as of late, but not bad." He then turned to Riley and Rhuben, who had stayed mostly silent for the exchange. "What do you think?"

"What time do we have to be there?" Rhuben asked with a sigh.

"Not until its dark," Ronan said. He, and the others, then turned their gaze to Riley. She tilted her head back and rolled her eyes before shrugging. Sydney let out a cheer before he got to his feet and raced from the room. Patrick, Noah, Rhuben, and Riley got up to follow him. Ronan reached out and lightly grabbed onto the back of Riley's ponytail, stopping her in her tracks. "What's wrong?" He asked. "You seem like you want to talk about something."

"Not yet, anyway," Riley replied. She gave him a small smile. "But when I do, you'll be the first to know, of course."

"Of course." Ronan agreed, letting her go.

For the next hour, he helped the Jacksons get everything that they thought that they would need together before he drove them over to the PalmWoods. They got out of the car and quickly said 'goodbye' to Ronan before walking inside the PalmWoods.

"Does anyone else besides me think that we see too much of this place?" Riley asked as she moved her hair over her shoulder. She glanced at Guitar Dude as they went by, nodding to the tune that he was playing.

"Just a bit," Patrick agreed. He smiled and nudged her with his shoulder. "What it could really use is a new paint job." He smiled and turned back ahead, making a strange, guttural sound when he spotted Jo in front of them. She lifted her head and smiled when she spotted them. "I mean," Patrick look at his feet. "Hi, Jo."

"Hey guys," Jo returned. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine," Noah said simply. "I guess."

"I like your pajamas," Jo said with a warm smile. "It's definitely you." She added. They were all wearing black sweatpants (as opposed to Sydney who was wearing black shorts) while Riley was wearing a basketball jersey, Rhuben a football jersey, Patrick a white wife-beater, Noah a black wife-beater, and Sydney a blue t-shirt. She turned to Riley and Rhuben. "Maybe us girls can have a sleepover when you guys get back."

"Maybe," Rhuben said politely.

"Cool, well, I have to go, I'll tell the others that you said 'hi'," Jo waved at them before walking around them and going to her own apartment.

Patrick turned away from his siblings as they all turned and gave him smirks. "Don't say anything," he groaned. "I already know that what I said was really stupid, I don't need you to rub it in either." He hitched his bag up his shoulder and led the way to apartment 2J. As they walked down the hallway, they spotted Dak and Lizzie a little bit ahead of them. "Hey guys," Patrick called to them.

"Hey," Lizzie replied with a bright smile. "You guys are coming to this sleepover too?"

"Guess so," Riley said. She then turned and smirked at Dak. "Sorry you weren't invited, Teen Icon. I guess the guys don't like you much. Not that many other people do."

"I can say the same to you," Dak returned easily. "The only in that you have that I don't is that you're a girl." He then turned to Lizzie as Riley rolled her eyes and pushed open the door to the apartment, going inside without knocking. "You gonna be on your best behavior?"

"Yes, Dad," Lizzie rolled her eyes before going into the apartment as well. "You worry too much."

"Don't worry," Rhuben said to Dak, shifting her sleeping bag in her arms. "All big brothers get that, it means you're doing a good job." She then nodded. "Ronan wanted me to tell you that it would be great if you could get started on your part of the song as soon as possible." She said.

"Thanks for the re minder, I'll get on it as soon as I get back home." He smiled at her. "Has anyone ever told you that you look really cute in glasses?" Dak asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Rhuben's facial expression didn't change, it was still blank. She reached up and lightly tugged on her purple strand of hair as she tucked it behind her ear. "I thought that I was cute when I'm tired," she said sarcastically.

"That too," Dak said, flashing a smile.

"Is there anything else that you need?" Logan asked, suddenly appearing behind the two of them. Dak looked over at him before standing up straight. "Because we need to keep the door closed or Bitters will come up here and find a way to give us a strike."

"Nope," Dak replied after a minute. "Just dropping my sister off, saying 'hi'." He nodded at Logan. "I'll see you guys on tour." He backed up and walked down the hallway. Logan reached around Rhuben and closed the door to the apartment.

"You guys coming?" James called from where he was sitting on the floor with the others.

"Yep," Rhuben said as she turned around, her pigtails hit Logan on the cheek. "Coming."

"Hey, Bella," Logan said as he followed her. Rhuben turned and looked at him curiously. "Yeah, I know, I haven't called you Bella in a while," he said, causing her to give a half smile. "I was just thinking," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Now that we're working close together and…" he spoke quickly. "Robert's gone," he spoke at his normal speed again. "Do you think that our friendship will go back to the way it was?"

Rhuben was silent for a few moments. "I think it's possible," she finally replied. "But it'll take a while." She said honestly. Logan smiled and nodded. Rhuben dropped her sleeping bag and backpack to the ground. "So what's up with this whole Bitters thing? Is he trying that hard to kick you out?"

"Yep," Katie agreed, popping the 'p' on the word. "Because these idiots give him practically every reason to hate them." She shook her head as she leaned towards Lizzie. "It wouldn't surprise me if they get us kicked out of here in the next few months." Lizzie giggled.

"You're kidding right?" Sydney snorted. He already had his sleeping bag rolled out on the floor and was sitting on it, his legs crossed. "Bitters has the functional IQ of a desiccated pea pod, he couldn't even _try_ to think of a clever way to kick you out."

Carlos burst out laughing. "Desiccated pea pod, that's funny."

"You don't even know what that means do you?" Logan asked, causing Carlos's laughter to slowly stop.

"No," Carlos admitted, shaking his head. "But it _sounded_ funny."

Mrs. Knight, hearing voices, hurried out of her room and flashed t he Jacksons a smile. "I'm glad to see you all, thanks for coming." She said with a warm smile.

"Thanks for having us," Noah said politely.

"Always so polite, No," Lizzie said, resting her arm on his shoulder. "I'm sure that Mrs. Knight wouldn't have minded much if you just said 'yeah' or 'yep' or thanks." She then gave an overly exaggerated smile. "But it's part of your charm, so we can excuse you for that."

"So, uh, make yourselves at home," Mrs. Knight continued, hoping to make them feel comfortable. "If you need anything, I'll be around to help." She said and then gave them a wave before disappearing back into her room.

* * *

><p>"This nail polish is a good color," Lizzie said as she picked up a bottle off of Katie's desk and rolled it back and forth between her hands. She turned around, looking at Katie as she sat on her bed, looking at a magazine. "How come you don't wear it?"<p>

"It's not my thing," Katie replied as she lifted her head. She tossed the magazine aside and shrugged, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her knees. "It's…I don't know," she shrugged again. "Too girly for me."

"Please," Lizzie snorted. "_Nothing_ is too girly for a girl, trust me." She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, her grin eyes flashing. "Unless, of course, you're not comfortable about something." Katie shot her a look. "I'm just saying. Even if you're a tomboy, that doesn't mean that you can't be girly. I'm a tomboy and look at me."

"No you're not," Katie denied.

"Yes, I am," Lizzie insisted with a nod. "I can be girly when I want, and I can be a tomboy when I want. I'm just being myself and," she grinned. "It helps when trying to meet boys."

"I should have known that there was an ulterior motive," Katie mumbled. She let out a sigh as she studied Lizzie. _She wouldn't have any problems with guys even if she was ugly. _Katie leaned her head forward, allowing her hair to fall over her face. "Um, Lizzie, do you think…?"

"What?" Lizzie asked, putting down the jar of nail polish. "What's up?"

Katie opened her mouth to answer, but stopped when there was a knock on the door. She sat up as the door opened and Riley stuck her head in. 'Yeah, Kendork wanted me to check to make sure that you guys were ok." She said with an eye roll.

Katie laughed. "You know you calling him Hockey-Head all the time really bugs him?" she asked.

Riley smirked. "That's why I do it," she replied. "Anyway, we were gonna start helping the guys with their song, so you can watch or whatever." She turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

"Come on," Lizzie jumped a little before hurrying out of the room.

Katie sighed and rolled her eyes before getting up from her bed and leaving the room, following Lizzie. The pants of her pajamas brushed the floor. She looked down at them before looking over at Lizzie, studying her outfit. A pair of shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, which was probably her brother's. It was so simple, yet it looked so good on her. She turned her head when she noticed her mother at the oven, struggling to pull something out.

"Do you need help mom?" Katie asked, walking over to her. She peered at the pan. "Yum, cookies."

"Thanks sweetie," Mrs. Knight said with a smile towards her daughter. "I just need you to move these to some plates." She placed the pan on the counter. She wiped her hands off on her apron and turned to Rhuben, who was kneeling by her bag. "Rhuben?" she called. Rhuben looked up, using a hand to move her hair out of her face. "Could you help me with this?"

Rhuben nodded and backed away from her bag, a pair of drumsticks in her hand. She looked curious as she slowly walked over to Mrs. Knight. "You got my name right," she said quietly.

"Oh," Mrs. Knight smiled. "I'm trying really hard to get it, so please be patient with me if I get it wrong again."

"At least you're trying," Rhuben pointed out. "Robert never tried, he just called us 'hey you' unless he really had to." She frowned, moving the right side of her mouth to the side before rolling her eyes. "It made it easier to mess with his head every now and then." She joked, trying to fill the uncomfortable silence that came after. "I got that Katie," she said and then nodded over to the group, who was sitting in a circle on the floor. "You can sit down."

Katie nodded and walked over to the circle, glancing around to see where she was going to sit. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Patrick, Lizzie, Noah, and Sydney already had a spot. Sydney noticed her looking around and moved over, patting the spot next to him, allowing her to sit down between him and Riley.

"So what do you guys have so far?" Riley was asking as Katie smiled at Sydney; sitting down, crossing her legs. Riley had a red acoustic guitar balanced in her lap, a notebook open in front of her with a pencil sitting on top. She lightly strummed the strings on the guitar with her right hand.

"Not much," Kendall said, looking down at his own notebook glumly. "We should Gustavo and so far he says it stinks."

"It's your first try writing a song," Patrick reassured him. "It's not going to be amazing," he rolled his eyes. "You can trust us on that one."

"But you write your own songs," Carlos reminded him. "Like, ever since you guys started your own band you've written your own songs, right?"

"Not exactly," Lizzie decided to answer. She reached up and grabbed a cookie off of the plate that Rhuben was carrying as she joined their circle, closing the last gap. "See, when they started, a lot of their songs were written by them, but the songwriters that were hired, and Ronan helped them make it better." She smiled proudly. "Like the songs that Dak worked on with them; he, Ronan, and other songwriters made some songs better."

"How many songs have you guys done with Dak so far?" James asked.

"Too many," Riley joked, causing Sydney to elbow her in the side. He gave her a disapproving look, although he was laughing lightly to himself.

James's eyes lit up. "Maybe we can record a song with you guys some time," he added. "It'll be great, our fame will rise quickly, and that way, I can get my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that much faster."

Logan grimaced. "Why don't you just go ahead and put your head on Mount Rushmore?" He asked.

"I thought of that," James replied. "But that takes a lot of money."

"Whatever, weirdo," Kendall laughed lightly as he shook his head. He started to tap out a beat on his notebook, to the song that they were going to be writing. "All we have so far is the chorus; we can't really get anything else before or after that."

"Everyone's got to start somewhere," Katie said.

"She's right," Noah nodded. "Besides, I'm sure it'll come good."

For the next hour and a half, the bands worked on the song, writing, erasing, and re-writing song lyrics. They played the chorus to the song so many times that they were sure that it was going to be stuck in their heads all night. No matter how hard they _did _work on it, they only got half of the song done, as someone would say something that would change the subject, or Carlos would as the Jacksons a question about their band, getting them to go off track.

"Ok, so what we have so far is," James cleared his throat and started to sing. "When everyday feels like the other and everywhere looks just the same. When every dream seems like forever, and you're a face without a name. Maybe now is our best chance to finally get it right. Cause if the world is an apple, then it's time to take a bite. Someday it'll come together. Someday we will work it out. I know we can turn it up all the way, cause this is our someday. Someday is what we make it. Someday is right here and now. Why wait, why wait, why wait? Cause this is our someday."

"Hm," Riley's upper lip curled slightly. "I still don't like the 'if the world is an apple' line." She shrugged, resting her arms on top of her guitar. "But, I mean, it's not my song, you guys are going to have to be the one that lives with it."

"Why don't you like it?" Kendall asked, stretching his legs out in front of him.

"It just sounds too shonky," Riley shook her head. "Too weird." She put her guitar aside and Kendall grabbed onto it, a questioning look in his eyes. She waved a hand and he put it in his lap, lightly running his hands over the strings. "But I guess we're going to have to leave it for now."

"I wish I had a guitar as good as this," he mused. "It'd probably make me better than you." He added.

Riley noticed his tone, her eyes narrowing. "You can't possibly tell me that you're still mad that we beat you in volleyball." She said in an accusing tone. She then laughed, loudly, when Kendall didn't answer, confirming her suspicions. "Dude, you've never played volleyball before. And even if you had, we'd still beat you, because we play it all the time."

"If I had more time to get used to it, I could have beaten you." Kendall said quickly.

Riley snorted. "No, you couldn't, Hockey-Head"

"Yes, I could," Kendall insisted, dropping his arms. "And _must_ you call me Hockey-Head all the time?"

"No, you couldn't," Riley repeated. "And yes, must." She smirked, getting the last word in their small fight. She looked up and gave Mrs. Knight a smile as the older woman handed her a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. "Cheesecake Brownie," she noted. "How did you-"

"Oh, we got you guys your favorite ice cream flavors," Carlos said with a proud smile.

"Huh," Sydney nodded, looking impressed. "A thinly veiled scheme to try and appropriate us coming over tonight." He opened his own pint of Banana Split and let out a little laugh before plunging his spoon into the dessert.

"Don't eat too much, Syd," Patrick warned as he took a bite of his own, Chocolate Therapy. "You know what happens when you get too much sugar."

"The same thing that happens with Carlos?" Logan asked. "He gets so hyped up that he runs around, embarrassing us to death, and then pukes all over the floor."

"Exactly," Patrick replied.

"But it's usually Patrick that embarrasses us anyway," Noah cracked, causing Katie and Lizzie to laugh and Patrick to scowl, his cheeks turning red lightly. Noah reached out and pushed the side of Patrick's head. Patrick turned back around, a mischievous glint flashing through his eyes before he put Noah in a headlock, pushing him onto his back on the ground.

Everyone watched as Patrick and Noah rolled around, trying to pin each other to the floor, leaning out of the way as arms, legs, elbows, and feet started to fly all over the place. Mrs. Knight, who was eating her ice cream at the dinner table, supervising from afar, stood up as she watched them, hovering like any mother would. When she noticed that Riley, Rhuben, and Sydney were merely watching, she smiled, sensing that they did it a lot and that it was a normal occurrence with the two of them.

"Do you give?" Noah asked when he had Patrick pinned to the floor by his face.

"I give," Patrick said breathlessly, his face squished against the floor.

"Good choice," Noah rolled off of his brother's back. "Love you, Buddy."

"Love you, too." Patrick replied. He then gave a wicked smile before leaning over and crushing Noah in a hug, obviously in return for pushing his face into the ground. Patrick then let go of his brother and picked up his notebook again.

"What you guys now need is to work on another verse and a possible, bridge, do you guys have any idea?" Rhuben asked, getting back to business. She and Riley then pushed their glasses up their nose and tilted their heads to the same side, scratching the side of their neck.

"Glad to see that you guys still act the same," Logan chuckled. He cleared his throat and then read out loud from his notebook. "Uh, how about… We all have times, where we wonder when will the spotlight shine on me. Don't let the waves go and pull us under or miss all the opportunity. Don't look down or look back, it's not so far to go. Cause if we never try then how will we ever really know?"

"Ah," Sydney shook his head. He held out his hand and wiggled his fingers, instructing Logan to hand it over. His blue eyes moved over the sheet of paper rapidly. "You have some places where there are too many words in here," he leaned forward and crossed a few out. "Or they just don't fit."

"It doesn't flow right," Katie put in her two cents. "From what I can tell, you guys want your songs to be short, sweet, and to the point." She clasped her hands together in her lap, wiping her hands on her pajamas pants, trying to warm them up, after holding onto her ice cream for so long.

"She's right," Logan agreed.

"Well, maybe if you changed the second part," Carlos suggested. "Here's what I wrote down." He picked up his notebook and cleared his throat before he started to sing. "Don't look down or look back, it's not that far to go. Cause if we never try then we will never really know." He put his notebook down. "Then go back into the chorus."

"Nice job, Carlos," Kendall slapped Carlos on top of his helmet. "I really like that. It flows really well." Carlos beamed with pride.

They continued to work on the song, changing things over and over again. They worked on it so much that Katie and Lizzie got so fed up at one point that they hauled themselves off to Katie's room and locked themselves in. The Jacksons worked on the song, giving suggestions to the boys whenever they were stuck on a part that he wanted to change. But they didn't outright tell them _how_ to change the song, wanting them to work on it themselves. It was nearing midnight when they finally had a rough outline of the song done. By that time, the guys were sure that the Jacksons were having a good time. They didn't flinch as much as they did when they first arrived, and they were laughing a bit more than they had before. It wasn't a complete 180 of their original personality, but it was a start.

"You all might want to start getting ready for bed," Mrs. Knight said as she walked into the main area of the apartment. She laughed when she spotted Carlos completely covered by pillows and couch cushions. "Do I even want to ask?" She asked.

"Probably not," Riley replied. She then turned to the boys, an amused look on her face. "You guys have a curfew?" She asked in a condescending tone. "Aren't you a little _old_ for a curfew?" She then turned to Mrs. Knight and raised a hand. "No offense."

"You don't ever think before you speak do you?" Sydney asked his eldest sister, who shook her head. "Didn't think so."

"A curfew will keep them well rested for work," Mrs. Knight defended herself patiently. "Don't you all have one? I mean, I know that you get sleep when you can, but I figured that with your scheduling it would help you rather than hinder you if you have one."

"Kinda," Riley shrugged. "But it wouldn't make a difference what time we go to sleep tonight, because we can catch up on it on the flight."

"At least brush your teeth," Mrs. Knight said with a smile.

"Yes, Mama Knight." Sydney replied.

Mrs. Knight looked over at him and her smile widened, when she realized that it was the first time that he had called her that. She then turned to James and raised an eyebrow. "You may want him to go first, though," she suggested. "His nighttime regime can take a while, so you should just get it over with."

"Thank you, Mama Knight," James said pointedly, ignoring Kendall's, Logan's, and Carlos's snickers as he got to his feet and went to the bathroom.

He did have a strict regime that he followed in the morning and at first. First, he massaged his face, then he put hot water on his face, washed it with three different cleansers, rinsed his face with cold water (to close his pores), put on three different moisturizers, and then finished off with a mask. Then he steamed the mask off and then started to brush his teeth, taking careful measures on brushing each of his teeth. That, of course, didn't add in his facial exercises.

"Handsome, can I ask you something?" Rhuben said as she leaned against the doorframe.

"Yes, this _is_ my natural hair," James said, his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. He leaned forward and spat into the sink before wiping his mouth off. He looked at her reflection and smiled. "And yes, I work hard to get my skin like this."

"Thanks for that input," Rhuben said dryly. "No, I was going to ask, would you take a really good opportunity, even if that meant that you had to completely put down your defenses and put yourself out there to do it?

"Yep," James said simply.

Rhuben's eyebrow rose. "How did you know that that fast?"

"Because it's what I've been doing to make my dream come true, and it's working so far." James said as he turned around, wiping his mouth with a towel. "I wouldn't ever let an opportunity that great slip by, even if I had to be completely vulnerable about it." He studied her. "Why?"

"We're asking all of you guys that," Rhuben said, motioning over her shoulder. "Ronan needs to know." She raised a hand. "To test how willing you guys are to be in this industry."

"I thought we proved that already." James said.

"People change all the time," Noah said, sticking his head in the doorway. "Are you done? I need to brush my teeth."

James nodded and moved out of the way. He watched as Riley, Patrick, Rhuben, and Sydney squeezed into the bathroom as well and they all started to brush their teeth, snapping at each other when they went to spit or when their elbows bumped against each other.

"So, do you think they had a good time?" Carlos asked as James went back to their room.

"I think they had a great time," James replied with a grin. "Not as good as it's going to be on tour, but close enough."

* * *

><p>Early the next morning found Mrs. Knight, Katie, and the boys at the airport, saying goodbye to the Jacksons as they were about to board their plane to go back to Sydney, Australia. They were going to be working on promoting their latest album <em>Too Close For Comfort <em>before they went on a month and a half tour for that and then go back to the US to tour with the boys to promote the release of their album _The DarkElements. _

"I can't believe that you guys are leaving already." Logan said with a shake of his head. He wanted to hug Riley and Rhuben goodbye, but wasn't sure if it would cause them to be uncomfortable. And with them getting some sort of a breakthrough the night before, he wasn't going to ruin it. "And we only just met each other again."

"Logie, relax, we're only going to be gone for a bit over a month," Riley reminded him.

"Have fun." Logan said with a smile.

"You too," Rhuben agreed before looking over to see James giving Patrick and Noah hair tips before they left. She scoffed. "James, I don't think they need any more advice from you."

"You never know," James sniffed, pretending to be hurt. "I could make a fortune off of this."

"I'm sure you will," Rhuben stated with a hint of sarcasm.

"You guys better hurry up and catch your flight," Kendall said, pointing over to the gate. Everyone else apart from the Jacksons had moved through the doors and now the attendant was waiting for them, an impatient look on her face.

"God forbid we keep them waiting long," Patrick rolled his eyes. He pulled his bag up over his shoulders." Bye guys." He led the others over to Ronan and Julius and the six of them got their tickets checked before they disappeared through the gate to get onto the plane.

"I still wish we were going," Carlos mumbled as he kicked at the ground.

Kendall laughed. "C'mon guys," Kendall got his friends' attention. "We have a tour to get ready for ourselves." He turned around and led the way out of the airport.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **OK, Katie and Lizzie finally got bigger parts in the story (sorry the POV jumped around a lot, it was needed to get everyone in). As for Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, they weren't really needed for the first arc, but their story lines get bigger in the 2nd and 3rd ones, so everyone gets bigger parts starting with the next chapter.

This chapter was kind of boring because it officially ended an arc and because there wasn't much for me to show at the sleepover other than them working on the song. You didn't see the rest of the adult's conversation in this chapter (on purpose) but you'll see it in the next one. Part of this chapter was re-done from _Big Time Rivalry _did you catch it?

Also, would you guys like to a see a chapter from one night when they're on tour (either just DE in Australia or BTR and DE in the US)? Or would you rather I just went ahead to after the tour, like I had done with _Don't Stop Believing_ (the second part of the three-part series)?

I hope you guys like it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	31. Welcome Back

**.:Chapter Thirty–One - Welcome Back:.**

"_A smile is the universal welcome" ~Max Eastman_

* * *

><p>"Hey guys," Dak greeted Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James as they walked into the piano room. He turned away from the sheet music that was in his hand and laid it on top of the piano. "What's up?" He held out his hand and Carlos grabbed onto it, the two moving forward and slapping each other on the back.<p>

"Ah not much," James replied as he moved over to the piano. He lightly ran his hands over the keys, plucking out a few notes. "We're glad that we're going to start working again, though." He said. "All that time off couldn't compare to the tour."

"You guys did a great job with it," Dak said with a nod. "I don't think anyone could tell that it was your first time opening a concert."

His eyes moved over the four boys in front of him. Their work with the concert, it had gone even better than any of them had expected. He was surprised, at first, to see that after a few shows the crowd had wanted to see BTR more and more, freaking out towards the end of his sets. But he was proud at the same time, he had been there since the beginning of BTR's work in LA, and he was glad that his friends were getting the recognition they deserved.

"So are we going to be working on harmonies today?" Logan asked nodding over to the sheet music that Dak had been looking at.

"Oh, this?" Dak looked over it. "That's mine, just some lyrics and stuff that I'm looking over for an audition." He shrugged. "I can't say anything about it, yet, but I'm really hoping that I get it."

"Cool," Logan nodded.

"But what I can tell you," Dak turned and pulled himself up onto the piano. "Is that Gustavo wants you guys to start thinking about your new CD." His eyes scanned the boys again. "The new looks that you guys are going to have, the new sound for the CD, marketing plans, stuff like that."

"And he's holding _us _responsible for that?" Kendall asked with a snort. "Doesn't he realize that that's a bad idea?"

Dak laughed along with the other boys. "No, he just wants you guys to be thinking about it," he said. "'Cause second CDs always mean changes," He shrugged. "You know."

Logan studied him for a few moments. His eyes narrowed as he titled his head to the side. Finally, he crossed his arms over his chest and looked Dak straight in the eye. "Is there something you're not telling us?" He asked.

"Uh, Yeah." Dak finally agreed after a moment of looking back at Logan. "Actually, I need to tell you guys something important," Dak disclosed. He ran his hands over each other, and then rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, I'm just going to go right out and say it." He cleared his throat. "I'm thinking of turning my work over to the Jacksons."

"What?" Carlos asked. It wasn't that he was shocked; he just didn't understand what Dak was saying. He looked over at Kendall, James, and Logan and saw that they were confused as well.

"I mean," Dak licked his lips. "While we have worked a lot together on your vocals and stuff while the Jacksons are back in Australia, taking a quick break, I've haven't been helping you guys much. I can only help you on your harmonies and your vocals. I can't really help you with songwriting; it's not my strength, or choreography, since I do musical theatre." He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. "And while I'm still going to be around to help you guys when I can, Gustavo and I think that it's a good idea if I focus myself more on the musical theatre plays that I want to do, and come in to help only when you guys really need it."

"I mean, let's face it, the Jacksons have five people that can help your strengths in five different areas of this work, and I can only help on two, maybe three max. They're helping you a lot better than I could, and have done. I mean, when they first got here, I showed them everything that they needed to know to break into the American market, now they're teaching that to you, so…"

Dak trailed off, waiting for them to say something.

"Are you sure about this?" James finally asked.

He looked concerned, but understood it at the same time. It was like with his dream, he would do anything to achieve stardom and everything that he wanted…by himself. But with the time that he was spending with his buds he knew was short, and he also knew that it was going to help him to get to where he was. It must be scary to finally go after what you wanted on your own.

To take time for yourself.

"I mean, you have helped us," James continued. "You've helped us a lot, more than we could say. You helped us figure out what to do with photo shoots and you helped us with our first big concert." Dak smiled at the memory. He could honestly say that they had gotten the 'Zevon Method' down at this point. "And we like having you around. "

"We got used to it, at least," Logan added.

He didn't mean it in a harsh way, not like it sounded. He intended it to be in an honest way that they _had_ gotten used to him around. They all knew who Dak Zevon was, growing up with their female classmates and Katie for that matter, always squealing over him. They hadn't ever thought that they would be friends with him. But he was a really nice guy and not a super teen icon that everyone thought that he was. He was just like them, trying to do everything that he could to achieve his dream.

"That's good to know," Dak chuckled. "Anyway, I haven't made my decision about it. Not yet, I just wanted to let you guys know what was going on before any decisions were made. Besides, you have a ways to go before you can even _think_ about starting to work on your songs for the next album."

"Well," Kendall held out a hand. "Whatever you decide, we're going to be behind you and support you whenever you need it."

"Thanks," Dak reached out and grabbed onto his hand, shaking it firmly.

"Is that the only reason why you called us over today?" Kendall asked as the two dropped their hands. He gave him a weird look. "Not that we were doing anything else. But I thought that we were going to be practicing or something."

"We are," Dak nodded. "I just needed to tell you guys that too, and now that I have it off of my chest, we can get to work." He pointed in front of him and the guys moved to stand in front of him in a line. "Alright, get into the position and we'll start with breathing techniques." He instructed.

For the next hour the boys worked on their harmonies and vocals of their own songs as well as some covers, as Dak wanted to work on furthering their vocal range. It would be better if they tried to do more things with their voices so they wouldn't get stuck in the same kind of style for the rest of the time that they were a band. As he explained it, they had to change (but keep to their own style) as the popular music changed, to stay relevant.

They were going over some last minute vocal runs when WayneWayne hesitantly stepped into the piano room. He looked around, making sure that he didn't meet any of the boys' eyes for too long. But the damage had been done at that point; they stopped singing and openly glared at WayneWayne as he walked further into the room.

"Hey," Dak greeted him the same way that he greeted the other guys. "What's up?"

"Nothing," WayneWayne shrugged.

"What's he doing here?" Logan asked.

"Oh," Dak's eyebrows lowered, sensing the tension that was in the air. "We were going to go play laser tag; do you guys want to come with us?"

"No thanks," Carlos said coolly.

"Yeah, we don't want to risk being kicked off our own team," Kendall added, his eyes flashing.

A pained expression slid over WayneWayne's face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt; I just wanted to say something." He took a deep breath and then looked at the four boys once more. "I'm sorry for everything that happened between us before." He said sincerely. "I was desperate for a job…music's not really my thing anyway, but that doesn't excuse anything. When Griffin offered me the spot…I didn't realize that my acting was going to go that far. Like I said, I was desperate and…I'm sorry."

"Whatever, dude," James shook his head.

WayneWayne watched as the four boys turned and left the room. Dak turned to WayneWayne and shrugged, confused. WayneWayne merely held up a hand. "It's a long story," he said with a sigh.

* * *

><p>Gustavo grunted as he turned his laptop back and forth. He lifted it up over his head and looked at the bottom of the console before placing it back down on his desk. He stared at it for a few moments, completely baffled, before crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the computer screen. Finally, he sat back and took in a deep breath.<p>

"KELLY!" He shouted.

He heard rapid footsteps coming down the hall and a few seconds later, Kelly appeared in the doorway, looking disheveled with a coffee mug in her right hand. "What?" She asked, breathlessly. "What's wrong? What'd you call me for?"

"I can't get this stupid thing to connect to my webcam," Gustavo replied, pointing to his laptop.

Kelly took a few calming breaths, carefully placing the coffee mug on the floor. She then smoothed out her hair and straightened her clothes before she walked over to her partner. "What do you need the webcam for?" She asked, trying to stay as calm as possible. She was used to being yelled at, by this point, but she knew that she was going to snap at him soon.

"Ronan said that he wanted to talk and that webcam is the best way to do it," Gustavo replied as he pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and started to scroll through some charts. "We're getting some numbers back from the band and we have to go over what our next step will be for their next albums and stuff."

"Have you thought about what Griffin suggested, giving the boys more free reign?" Kelly asked gently.

She knew that was the basis of all of his annoyances at the moment. Griffin. Nothing annoyed Gustavo more than hearing his boss's name. It wasn't that Griffin was already hanging Gustavo's job over his head with the feedback they were waiting on for the certification of _B.T.R_. as well as the tour reception. Now he was starting to dictate what Gustavo should do with the boys' next CD.

And they hadn't even begun to _think_ about working on it at that point.

"Yes, and he's crazy," Gustavo put his phone down on his desk and took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder why I decided to work for Griffin, even though I know that it was the best opportunity that I had at the time." He said under his breath.

"Well, if it helps, Gustavo, I think you're doing a fine job," Kelly said as she finally hooked up his computer to set up his webcam. "There you go," she clicked on Ronan's name in the program and the two waited as the screen loaded and Ronan's face suddenly appeared.

Gustavo's eyes narrowed as he watched people walk back and forth behind him. Some of them would lean over Ronan's shoulder and look into the computer screen. When they saw Gustavo glaring back at them, they would quickly walk away. "Where are you?" Gustavo asked, leaning forward, his nose close to the computer screen. "It's…really loud there." He squinted. "That's not your office. And what's that on your face?"

"I'm sitting in the airport," Ronan replied, running a hand over his face. "We got an earlier flight that originally planned, to get back to LA, but it got delayed so we're waiting for a few hours. We should be in tomorrow." He then rolled his eyes. "And it's a beard."

"It looks like a fungus," Gustavo said as he leaned back.

"You would know." Ronan smiled. Kelly laughed as she stood behind Gustavo's chair. Watching the two of them bicker ways always entertaining. "Hey Kelly," he greeted her. "How are you?"

"She's great," Gustavo interrupted. "Now, we need to get down to business." He held up his iPhone. "The statistics that we're getting in from the marketing team shows that BTR should be getting a good certification for their first CD and that we should be hearing about it soon."

"Good for them," Ronan said with a nod. "The first CD is always the crucial one, you can see, well, _hear, _all of the hard work that they put into it."

"But that brings us to the second CD," Kelly said, leaning over Gustavo's chair. "They've signed a contract that if the first CD does well, they then have the ability to do a second, and Griffin thinks that they _should_ do a second one."

"Let me guess." Ronan gave a wry smile. "He demanded you to do it?" He suddenly laughed out loud. "I can tell from the pissed off look on Gustavo's face!" He said.

"That's not what bothers him," Kelly said with a smug smile. "What's bothering him is that Griffin thinks that the boys should have more of a free reign with their second CD." She pulled out her PDA. "Along with a new set of rules." She cleared her throat and started to read them off. "The rule about keeping up their grades to perform is still there, as if the rule that they have to have a curfew, to make sure that they're in top form and that they stay healthy. The no drinking or drugs rule is still in effect as well."

"So what's changed?" Ronan asked. His head was bent forward, probably over his own phone, making notes of what Kelly was saying.

"Griffin likes the idea of the DarkElements being the boys' rival, he wants to keep that," Kelly said. Gustavo grunted and muttered something under his breath and Kelly rolled her eyes. "But he also wants to be sure that everything else they do, PR related is as successful as their shoots in New York. So what he wants is that he wants them to go with each other to specific events that Rocque Records is hosting or that he thinks will be helpful for their image, make them look a bite more dangerous than squeaky-clean pop boys."

"Huh," Ronan lifted his head, pausing for a moment.

"You have something to say, McGuire?" Gustavo asked.

"No, I just like making that sound to hear my voice out loud," Ronan replied sarcastically.

"Well, get on with it," Gustavo waved his hand impatiently.

"Ok, well," Ronan licked his lips. "When we first established the rules, I was with everything except for the 'no romantic entanglement rule' and I was against it for two reasons. One," he held up his thumb. "You can't tell teenagers who not to date, they'll just go around your back and do it anyway," he held up his index finger. "And two, they need to be able to make their own choices that aren't affected by their jobs and I think that this is one of them."

Gustavo stared at him for a moment. He then took a deep breath and managed to say as calmly as possible. "Are you crazy?"

"Last I checked, I was quite sane." Ronan said.

"That's up for debate," Gustavo snorted and shook his head. "No, what I mean is, do you _really_ want to have a bunch of hormone riddled teenagers running around the place crying because so-and-so broke up with them?"

"I doubt it would get that far," Kelly said as she rolled her eyes. "But I agree that Ronan has a point. It could actually help with their songs, for fans to relate to. I mean," she poked Gustavo on the shoulder. "Remember when they got the song _Any Kind of Guy? _It wouldn't be the way it is now if all of them weren't fighting over Jo at the time."

"Thank you," Ronan said.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Gustavo continued to shake his head. "The dogs that have their girlfriends already, that's fine. But if they start to date inside the bands, it'll just cause fans to go crazy and things will spiral out of control and-"

"How about a compromise," Kelly interrupted him. Her eyes lit up as she came up with a solution. She knew that it would work for all of them and it could help both bands each way, and, technically, none of them would be lying to their fans. "What if we lift the 'no dating each other' rule but have it where the guys and the DarkElements have to go to events together that Riley and Rhuben cycle through each one of the guys to be their date for the night." She cleared her throat. "For example, one event they have to go to together Riley will 'go with' Kendall and Rhuben will 'go with' Logan. And then the next time Riley will 'go with' Logan and Rhuben will 'go with' James and then cycle from there."

"And the events where the two bands don't have to go together, where it doesn't matter about PR or anything, they can go with whomever they want." Ronan agreed. "I like that idea."

"I don't." Gustavo insisted.

"Well, so far you're outvoted 2-1," Kelly said. She stood up straight and started to write a memo out onto her phone. "I'll tell Kacy about it and then we can go on from there."

On screen, Ronan looked up as something was called over the loud speaker. Around him, people started to get up and gather their things. The voices blended together, but the Australian accents of the Jacksons could easily be heard through the speakers.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Ronan said as he started to gather his stuff. "Look, I have to catch my plane; we can continue talking about this when I get back." He said hurriedly. "I'll see you guys soon."

The program closed and Gustavo pushed himself away from his desk, turning to face Kelly. He bided his time, tapping his fingertips together as he thought about what he was going to say. There was so much that he wanted to say, but he didn't want to alarm her either.

"I think that we're going to have a lot of work to do before we can start working on the second album." He said slowly.

Kelly nodded in agreement.

* * *

><p>"Come on! Wake up! Wake up! Let's go!"<p>

Kendall groaned as Katie leapt onto his back. The sudden weight that crash landed onto him woke him up immediately. Katie started to shake his shoulders, causing his head to flop back and forth and his hair to go flying.

"Come on," she continued to shake Kendall until he finally opened his green eyes to glare at her. Katie beamed in reply. "Glad to see that you're finally away, Big Brother."

She turned her head as, across the room, Logan let out a whining sound and rolled over on his bed. He was scrunched up in a ball, the covers over his head, only the top of his mop of brown hair was showing. Katie stood up and leapt from Kendall's bed to Logan's, landing on top of the smarter boy and started to shake him as well.

"Katie, leave us alone." Logan's muffled voice came from under his blankets.

Mrs. Knight leaned in the doorway of the boys' room, smiling as she watched the exchange. It just reminded her of when they were back in Minnesota. Whenever it was a now day (which they didn't get many off of school since Minnesota was so used to snow) Katie would go into Kendall's room, sit on his chest and pull up each eye-lid, asking 'are you awake' each and every time. When he would finally wake up, she would start to shake him, saying that they had the day off of school. By that time, the two would be awake and bouncing around, rushing for breakfast before they went to go play in the snow. Even when Logan, James, and Carlos came over to play in the snow with Kendall, he would let Katie go along with them, so she wouldn't be bored. It was nice to see that old habits die hard; it was even nicer to see that she gave the other boys the same treatment, seeing them as her brothers as well.

Mrs. Knight smiled and shook her hair over her shoulders before reaching out and knocking on the doorframe, getting the girl's attention. "Katie, honey," she chuckled when she noticed Katie and Logan in a tug-of-war over his blankets. "Let them sleep."

"But mom," Katie whined. She gave the blankets another tug, causing Logan to pull them back so hard she toppled forward. "The Jacksons are coming back today. They'll want to know."

Logan suddenly sat up, knocking Katie backwards to the foot of his bed. Kendall laughed, pushing a hand through his hair as he sat up as well. Katie stuck her tongue out at her brother before reaching over and smacking Logan on the leg in retaliation for knocking her over. Logan, instead, reached over and grabbed onto Katie's shoulders.

It was now his turn to shake her.

"They're coming home?" Logan questioned. His brown eyes widened in disbelief. He then realized what he said and quickly corrected himself. "I mean back to LA? Today?"

Kendall jumped up and bounced across his bed; much like a little kid would do on Christmas morning, and landed on the floor in front of his mother with a dull thud. He then reached out and held onto her arms. "Mom!" He exclaimed urgently. "Drive us to the airport! Now!"

Mrs. Knight raised her eyebrows, giving her son a hard look as she crossed her arms over her chest. Kendall gulped, immediately understanding the stance. She was one that really pushed having respect in her son and daughter, and he knew that barking at her like that was anything _but_ respectful.

"I mean," Kendall gave a charming smile. "Please drive us to the airport when you have the chance." He batted his eyelashes. "And I love you."

"What's going on?" James demanded as his head popped into the room behind Mrs. Knight. HI hair was sticking up all over the place. His hazel eyes darted back and forth between Kendall and Logan with an accusing stare. "You woke me up from my beauty sleep." He then let out a sigh. "Do you _know _what lack of sleep can do to me?"

"Makes you a whining baby?" Logan guessed.

"No!" James snapped. "It makes me cranky, and when I get cranky I get wrinkles in my forehead! AND I DON'T NEED WRINKLES IN MY FOREHEAD!"

"Dude, chill," Kendall turned to James and placed a hand on his shoulder. "The Jacksons are coming back today; a whole day earlier than before. We're going to go to the airport to meet them there."

James's eyes lit up, suddenly looking well rested. "Well, why didn't you say so?" He smoothed his hair down and disappeared from the doorway. The next thing they heard was the sound of a pillow hitting someone, Carlos's yelp, and then a loud thud as he hit the floor.

"Boys," Katie muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"I'll get breakfast started while you boys change," Mrs. Knight said. She made a sweeping motion with her arm and Katie got off of Logan's bed hurrying out of the room. "We can go to the airport after, alright?" She reached out and closed the door behind them so they could get changed in private.

Mrs. Knight shouldn't have even bothered with making breakfast. The time that it took for the boys to eat their breakfast was much shorter than the time that it took her to make everything. On the plus side they helped by cleaning up the dishes while she went to get the Jacksons' and Ronan's plane details offline. By the time that she had grabbed her purse and keys, the boys and Katie were impatiently waiting by the front door. They had even hurried her out to the rental car, practically picking her up in their excitement.

It was nice to see, Mrs. Knight could admit that she hadn't seen them so excited for anything since they had gotten to LA. But part of her was also worried, if they weren't going to get the kind of welcome that they were expecting.

"Can't this car move any faster?" Katie demanded, leaning to the side, pressing her face against the passenger window. She watched as the landscape whizzed by their car, her eyes instinctively following it. "Are we almost there?"

"Not unless you want me to get a speeding ticket," Mrs. Knight replied with a light laugh.

"Who cares if you get a ticket?" Carlos questioned from the back, where he was sitting with the other boys.

"Carlos is right, Mom," Kendall agreed. He leaned forward, putting a hand on the side of her seat. "I mean, it's only a piece of paper, and opportunities like this only come once in a lifetime."

James laughed when Mrs. Knight snorted. It was the same line that was used on him when Kendall tried to get him over his stage-fright so he could audition for Gustavo the first time. It was the same thing that he said when they were fighting about whether or not they wanted to continue to do Big Time Rush, having to audition for Griffin earlier than expected. James was sure, at this point, that it was the same line that Kendall used on anyone every time they were hesitant to do something.

Especially if their dream was involved.

It was another half hour before they got to the airport. Mrs. Knight parked the car in the drop-off area and consulted the itinerary once more before they headed off to go to the terminal. Once inside, they had to push through large crowds of people that were heading towards their own flights, leaving with people that they picked up, or going off to pick up rental cars. The crowds were much larger than expected; they all got jostled around a bit. At one point, Carlos even managed to push someone back, not noticing that it was a security guard, before he was dragged off by Mrs. Knight, who made sure that he was by her side at all times afterwards.

Once they arrived at the gate, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James and Katie looked around impatiently for their friends to see if they had arrived yet. Once the gate opened and people started to pour out, Katie, being the shortest out of everyone, stood up on a random chair and leaned back and forth, trying to look over the crowd for their familiar faces. All at once, a bunch of screaming girls and a couple of guys crowded around the gate, their shrieks getting louder as they crowded around, pushing notebooks and phone cases forwards to be signed.

Katie watched them for a few moments, wondering who that big could have come into the airport. She knew of almost every celebrity in LA and where they were going to be, and she knew for a fact that they weren't going to be at the airport that day. So who could it have been?

Katie leaned back and forth a few more times, looking for her friends. She almost didn't see them until they were right in front of her. Katie grinned as she hopped down from the chair and grabbed her brother's and friends' attention before pointing them out. James put his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, before waving his hands in the air.

Sydney noticed them first; having heard James's whistle, he turned his head around and his face broke out in a wide smile when he spotted them. He then shook someone's arm before the five of them started to walk over to their friends, Ronan trailing leisurely behind them.

They looked different, a little more cheerful as they had been when they left; Patrick and Noah had grown a little bit taller so they now stood two inches taller than their sisters. Patrick's hair still had the blonde streaks in it, but he didn't have it put up in his signature style, the Mohawk, and he was wearing glasses. Noah's hair and grown a little bit longer, almost to shoulder length, and had a few more silverfish-gray streaks in it. Sydney had gotten a little taller and had his hair cut so it was still messy, just not as long as before, a bright shade of blue streaks in his hair. But it was Riley and Rhuben that had a very obvious difference. Each girl had cut their long hair, which had been mid-back length, so now it rested at their shoulders with more red and purple streaks in them. The Australian sun had also done them well, as they were slightly tanned. But they wouldn't be the DarkElements, if they weren't wearing black. All of them were wearing some sort of a t-shirt in their own color, but were wearing black shorts with black socks and shoes as well.

"G'day," Sydney greeted as he held out his hand. Each of them gave him a high-five. "How was your tour?" He asked, his eyes lighting up. He moved out of the way so his siblings could stand with their friends as well.

None of them were sure what to do. They knew that if they moved forward to hug them, they would probably be shut down, or the Jacksons would flinch and back off. It was something that they had worried about the whole time that they had been gone. Would their past abuse still affect them the way it did before? Or would the time that they were spending back home, essentially in paradise, make things easier for them?

Their questions were answered when Patrick had taken Carlos's hand, which had been an offered high-five, and gave him a man-hug. Ronan, noticing the looks on their faces was quick to explain, in a low tone. "If they hug you first, you're fine. The only time they have a problem is if you make sudden movements towards them."

Mrs. Knight smiled and nodded.

"Our tour was great," James said as he smiled back at the youngest Jackson. He then tilted his head to the side. "Australia looks like it's been great on you, but," he gave a funny smile. "You seem to be missing something in your mouth."

Sydney smiled widely again, showing off his missing two front teeth. "Yeah, I lost them a couple of days ago." He explained.

"Don't get him started with the tooth fairy though," Riley said, half amused, half sarcastic. "He'll go on this long tangent about why you would want someone coming into your room late at night."

"He has a point though," Mrs. Knight laughed.

"See?" Sydney said indignantly, sticking his tongue out at his brothers and sisters.

"It's so good to see you, guys." Logan said and held out his arms towards Rhuben. She hesitated for a second before stepping into them, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He blushed good-naturedly. "We were wondering when you'd get back."

"Don't forget me," Riley gently nudged her sister out of the way before giving Logan a hug too and a kiss on the cheek too.

"How was Australia?" Kendall asked, getting his round of hugs as well. He crossed his arms over his chest when the last of them backed away. "I know that you guys say that there's nothing like it, but it must have been good to be home."

"Better than you would think," Patrick replied as he raised his right eyebrow. He slowly turned his blue eyes to Ronan. "But it wasn't as much time off as we thought, because of some interviews we had to do."

Ronan smiled and shrugged. "Don't blame me, blame PR." He said with a laugh. He then smiled over at Mrs. Knight. "It's nice to see you again Kacy."

"It's nice to see you too, Ronan." Mrs. Knight smiled in reply. "I'm sure that you were just as busy with your time off as you were when you guys were on tour." She said with a light laugh. Ronan gave her a look.

"You'd think that," he replied and reached out, mussing Patrick's hair. "Especially with these guys running around all over the place, but not really," He stuck his hands in his jeans pockets. "Julius was around, so he helped from time to time, so I got some well deserved time off as well."

Katie's eyes moved around the group of her friends. She only then just realized that their eldest brother wasn't anywhere to be seen. Katie turned her gaze back to the others, lightly ringing her hands together. "Speaking of Julius," she said nonchalantly. "Where is he? Did he miss the flight?"

"He's finishing up the rest of his school year," Patrick replied, shifting the small backpack that was on his back. "He only has a few more tests to take and then he's done for the year. He got accepted into Newcastle, so he's just hoping to keep his grades up." His voice cracked at the end of his sentence and the right side of his face scrunched up, apparently annoyed at the change.

"But he should be back in a month or so," Noah added, his voice as quiet as ever. Katie was surprised that she was able to understand him without much problem.

"Ok, let me see," James grabbed onto Riley's arm and held her still as he looked over her over. Riley's facial expression turned to one of annoyance and confusion as she was held still. "Hmm, lots of volume, shape is nice and great body as well."

"Uh, you're talking about my hair right?" Riley asked.

"That too," James said with a wink. He let go of her arms, causing her to rub them lightly. "What made you guys want a change?"

"Ah," Rhuben waved a hand. "We've been growing it out for so long…people suggested that we change it, and we've wanted to cut it for a while, but PR and Marketing wouldn't let us for a while. So, one day we just decided to go ahead and cut it."

"I really like it," Katie said with a smile and a nod. "Definitely suits you." She rolled her eyes. "And as you can see, you already have James's stamp of approval."

"Considering everything I do is to impress James," Riley and Rhuben said in unison, rolling their eyes. They smirked at each other as Kendall laughed.

"So," Ronan rubbed his hands together. He looked at his watched before pointing over his shoulder. "I hate to cut this short, but we should get going to baggage claim. Our stuff should be there by now." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Hopefully they don't throw out my stuff again."

"Hopefully they don't crush my guitar, again." Patrick added.

"Yeah, we kind of need to get going," Sydney said. He opened his mouth wide and gave a loud yawn. With his free hand, he pulled the brim of his baseball cap down over his forehead, casting a shadow across his face. "That's the price you pay when you come back from Oz, you lose a day of sleep and make it up by sleeping all day the next day."

"Aw, but you guys just got back," Carlos said, a bit dejectedly. "Don't you want to see Jo, Camille, or Steph? Or even Dak for that matter."

Patrick snickered and Sydney elbowed him in the side.

"Carlos, let them sleep," Mrs. Knight chided him. "They're back now; you can wait another day before you all start terrorizing Bitters."

"Fine," Carlos sighed.

"We'll see you guys later, most likely at Rocque Records." Noah said. He then gave a wave and the he, his siblings, and Ronan went off to baggage claim.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **And now, it's the official start to the 2nd arc. I didn't mean for that to rhyme. I had some trouble figuring out how to have this chapter go, but I'm glad the way it turned out. This chapter was a span of two days; an afternoon and then the next morning.

I've got a lot of things coming up for this arc with everyone; what I'm looking forward to the most is for Kendall and Katie as I like writing their complex brother-sister relationship and of course with the Jacksons as well as everyone else. Thing is, I don't want Dak's only existence to be for relationship drama, but at this point, I don't know what else to have him for. Since BTR haven't met his parents (and probably won't in my stories) only DE know what they're like, so I don't know how to put that in this one as well. Any help is greatly appreciated; his is the only one that I'm having problems with.

If you want to see the progress of this story, as well as others that we're working on, you can check it out on our tumblr (dark-elements-10). We blog things about our fics and pics of our characters, but we also blog/re-blog about BTR, Power Rangers, Harry Potter, Avengers, and a lot of other stuff.

I hope you guys liked this chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	32. Teenage Kicks

**.:Chapter Thirty–Two – Teenage Kicks :.**

"_Being a teenager is an amazing time and a hard time. It's when you make your best friends - I have girls who will never leave my heart and I still talk to. You get the best and the worst as a teen. You have the best friendships and the worst heartbreaks.__" ~Sophia Bush_

* * *

><p>"You want to know the <em>one<em> thing I didn't miss while we were on tour?" Carlos whispered.

Kendall thought for a moment before shrugging. There were a million things that he didn't miss about being back in the PalmWoods in comparison to being on tour. At least on tour they were seeing their fans and were having the time of their lives. Being back at the PalmWoods, back to 'normal life' wasn't as exciting.

"Being back in school," Carlos concluded. He let out a heavy sigh as he leaned forward across his desk, resting his forehead on the wood.

"That's all for today." Miss. Collins turned away from the chalkboard, dusting off her hands. A small cloud of chalk wafted up into the air. She smiled warmly at her students. "Have a nice day."

Carlos let out a 'whoop' of a cheer as he leapt up from his desk and gathered his things, hurrying out of the room.

"With how fast he moved, you'd think that someone set his pants on fire," James said to Kendall as they gathered their things to leave. James's hazel eyes flashed with mischief. "Like last April Fool's Day."

"You have to admit, the fire department got to his house pretty quickly," Kendall agreed with a laugh. He reached over and gripped Logan's shoulder, noticing that he was still at his desk, writing something in his notebook. "Hey, Big Time Brain, class is dismissed."

"Hold on, let me just get the rest of the details of the science project down," Logan said, shaking his shoulder so Kendall let go of him.

Camille giggled and leaned over, kissing her boyfriend on the forehead, causing him to smile. "Just look at him so hard at work, he's so cute, isn't he?"

"That really depends on who you're asking," James reminded her as he rapidly raised and lowered his eyebrows.

The girls all rolled their eyes. While James did say that he wanted a steady girlfriend at some point, they were all sure that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Especially not if he had so many girls that he found attractive. But that was the point of his 'girl book' he was able to keep them all straight and figure out whom he wanted to go out with next. But that didn't stop him from flirting with his friends.

"So, what are you guys up to today?" Stephanie asked, pulling her backpack onto her back.

"I don't know, I think Gustavo has us working on harmonies today," Logan replied as he finished putting his stuff together.

"Gustavo has been working you guys pretty hard since you came back," Katie noted as she went over to her older brother and his friends. She looked a bit concerned. "Like, a lot more than usual."

"It's probably just because he wants them to be better since their tour did so well," Jo said kindly.

"I don' think so." Katie shook her head. "I mean, he hasn't been yelling at them, or really talking to them at all, just telling them when they have to be at Rocque Records, and then Dak or Kelly works with them. He hasn't worked with them himself in a while."

"And that's the way we like it," James reassured her, mussing her hair. "I mean would you rather be screamed at by Gustavo or actually get some work done?"

"Good point," Katie agreed. She then elbowed James in the stomach. "And don't mess up my hair!"

"You spend too much time with James," Kendall remarked.

Katie stuck out her lower lip and looked away from her brother.

"So, we haven't established what we're going to do today." Stephanie said. She thought for a moment. "I was thinking we go to the mall." She placed her hands on her hips. "Considering I know that Kendall would suggest going to the ice rink and since Jo _hates_ hockey," she eyed the blonde couple, who both smiled. "I figured I'd save us the trouble of a fight."

"Oh," Camille pulled her phone from her pocket. "Wally and I were planning on going to the mall together soon, can we invite him too?" Her eyes widened at the silence that followed her question. She looked over at the boys, who were openly gaping at her. "What?" she asked.

"Uh, you do know that he tried to kick Kendall out of the band, right?" James asked.

"Yeah," Camille said slowly. "But he apologized for it." She said. Her eyebrows lowered lightly. She looked over at Jo and Stephanie, who made faces, not sure what to say. Even Katie, who was usually so opinionated, wasn't saying anything.

"And you think he meant that?" Kendall asked scornfully.

"He's my best friend," Camille started.

"You have a weird taste in friends." Carlos commented.

Camille ignored him as she crossed her arms over her chest. "He's my best friend; I know when he's being serious about something." She insisted. "And he was being serious when he apologized. He's not a bad guy." She turned to Logan and grabbed onto his hands. "Would you please try?"

Logan shook his head. "I don't think I can." He admitted.

Camille pouted. "Not even for me?" She asked, her eyes searching his.

Logan let out a deep breath. That was a situation he never wanted to be in; stuck between his girlfriend and his best friends. He didn't want to hurt his girlfriend's feelings, but he didn't want to turn his backs on his buds either. It was a lose-lose situation as far as he could see. No good was going to come out of whatever he decided. He opened his mouth to try and give a response, but Camille smiled gently, standing on her tip-toes, and gave him a kiss.

"It's alright, you just need some time," She said, gently squeezing his hands in hers.

"Thanks," Logan said quietly.

"Are you done with his lovey-dovey moment?" James asked, causing Logan to blush and take a step away from Camille. "Aren't we going to the mall?"

"Aww," Katie teased, mockingly pursing her lips. "Are you jealous because you're the only one without a girlfriend?"

"Who needs a girlfriend when I get all of the attention from our fans?" James asked with a charming smile.

"You wish," Kendall elbowed him in the side.

"I'll invite Lizzie," Katie said, pulling her phone from her pocket. "Maybe that way I'll have someone to talk to when you guys are too busy making kissy-face." She smirked before walking a few paces away, dialing a number into her phone. She put her phone up to her ear and waited for Lizzie's enthusiastic greeting. "Hey Liz, we're going to the mall, do you want to come?"

"Oh, I can't," Lizzie sounded disappointed. "There's this thing that we're rehearsing for at school and I can't get away from it." She made a whining sound. "That sucks, I love the mall."

"I know," Katie said dead-pan. "That's the only reason that we go so much. It's cool; we can just hang out later." She ended the call and turned back to her friends. "Lizzie can't make it, but let's get going anyway."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **This is a really short filer chapter, done on purpose because I needed to show how BTR react to Camille starting to try and make them friends with WayneWayne. It alsoshows the beginning of the first or Katie's two problems in this story. They intertwine at some point. Can you guys guess what it is?

My only problem with some characters is would you rather see more (if you get what I mean) the back story of Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Dak, WayneWayne, and Lizzie? The only reason I'm, somewhat, against it is because it's supposed to be mainly about BTR and DE and how their friendships form with each other as they try to make it big. So it makes more sense to me that the focus stays on them and have the others come in when needed. (BTW, I swear next chapter has a good, long part with Jo, Camille, and Stephanie).

Cheers,

-Riles


	33. Some Say

**.:Chapter Thirty–Three – Some Say:.**

"_Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense." ~Robert Frost_

* * *

><p>"Hey Peeps," Ronan greeted the Jacksons as he walked out of his room and into the main area of his penthouse apartment. The five siblings greeted him in unison, their eyes glued to the TV where they were watching a football game. Patrick, Noah, and Sydney cheered as a whistle was blown.<p>

"Wait," Rhuben said, obviously confused. "Why is that a good thing?"

"Possession goes to the Raiders," Patrick explained.

"How did that happen?" Riley scratched the side of her head. "I must have blinked and missed something." She shook her head. "But that was a really good tackle. The other dude went flying."

"I'm guessing that's the only reason that you like sports," Ronan said with a laugh as he walked over towards them. He almost reached the couch when he tripped over something, causing him to crash to the floor. "Son of a bitch!" He cried, smacking his knee on the ground.

"Oh," Sydney gasped as the Jacksons all turned and kneeled on the couch, watching as Ronan pulled himself off of the floor. "You cursed," he pointed at Ronan as he gave a wide smile. "You have to put two dollars in the Potty Mouth Jar."

Ronan grumbled as he reached for his wallet and pulled out two one-dollar bills and handed them over to Sydney, who held them up to light. When he was satisfied that it wasn't fake, he stuck them in his shorts pockets. Ronan turned around, looking for the source of what caused him to fall over. He reached down and picked up a skateboard, looking hard at Riley as he held it out towards her.

"Oops," she gave a sheepish smile as she took it from him. "Sorry, Ronan, I forgot I put that there."

"It's alright," Ronan bent over and rubbed his knee as he surveyed the apartment. There were drink cans, plastic water bottles, magazines, guitar picks, and drum sticks lying all over the place. "What were your guys' plans for today?" He asked. "I mean, besides going over to the PalmWoods to talk to Miss. Collins to see what you could have missed.

"Nothing," Noah replied. He turned his head and smacked Patrick repeatedly on the arm, using his other hand to point at the TV. "Long pass, long pass!"

"Dude, he's not gonna catch it!" Patrick added.

"Ok, well, if you didn't have any plans, do you mind cleaning up a bit?" Ronan asked as he straightened up.

"No problem," Sydney slid off of the couch and went over to the kitchen. He disappeared inside the pantry and came back with five large trash bags, which he handed over to his siblings as they, dutifully, got off of the couch as well.

Ronan smiled a little as he watched them move around the living room, cleaning up things as they went._ At least some things don't change. _He mused to himself, glad that he only had to ask once to get them to do it. He couldn't help but notice that as soon as they had gotten back from Australia, things had been weird with them. They weren't exactly the same as they used to be. The Jacksons weren't as loud as they were whenever they used to come over to his apartment to hang out. In fact, they seemed a bit afraid that he would yell at them if they started to get rambunctious. He preferred them being that way as it was more real, the fact that they were sneaking around like mice was starting to get to him.

While they didn't say it out loud, he knew that it was because they were going to be questioned soon. No one knew when that day was going to come, but he could tell that they were afraid of the memories that it would bring back. He didn't want to see the progress that they had made while relaxing back home after their tours get compromised. Plus, he wasn't sure what he would do if he ever had to see Robert again. If they didn't see him at the police station, they would surely see him when they were going to court, if it got that far.

And if it _did _get that far, how badly would things be then?

"Whoa," Ronan said when he noticed the pile of cans of energy drinks that they had stacked up. "How much of this stuff do you guys drink?" He picked up a can of Red Bull. "You know it's not that healthy."

"That's why we pace ourselves when we have to drink it," Patrick explained. He was the 'health nut' out of all of them as he was the one that ran their workout schedules. He tried to stay as healthy as possible with what he and his siblings ate or drank, even going as far as to knock soda bottles out of his siblings' hands when they were getting ready for performances. "Because of all of this jet lag, we're trying to get used to LA time again." He pointed to the Red Bull. "Only Riley drinks that, Rhubes drinks Rockstar, No and I drink Monster, and we only let Syd have water or lemonade."

"Good looking out," Ronan tossed the can back to Patrick, who caught it in his right hand after flinching. He felt a twinge of guilt run through him, but shook it off when Patrick gave him his famous lop-sided smile.

Apparently a lot of their female fans fell for him through it and for Noah through how shy he could be. If it wasn't for the fact that Sydney was so young, Ronan was sure that they'd have the female population split into thirds as to who their favorite was. As it stood, the poll on their site had it that most fans couldn't choose a favorite as they liked them all equally.

"Where're you going?" Riley asked, tying the bag to the belt loop of her jeans. "You usually hang out all morning, since it's the weekend." She pointed out.

"Oh," Ronan started to search the living room for his car keys. "I was going to meet up with Mrs. Knight so we could talk about the direction of the bands and the new rules that we made up."

"Yeah, about that," Riley crossed her arms over her chest. "We're fine with the rules, since you think it's a good idea," Ronan looked at her, looking for a sarcastic smile or a teasing smirk, but there was none. She was being serious. "But don't you think that it would put the fans in a tizzy or something?"

"You care too much about what your fans and people in general think," Ronan pointed out, looking at all five of the Jacksons in turn. "The true fans are gonna support you no matter what," he then snorted. "And they'd go into a tizzy if there were news that Sydney popped a blood vessel from sneezing."

"That's possible," Sydney piped up.

"And then they'd start trending 'Praying for Sydney' or something like that on ScuttleButter, like he died," Ronan continued. "And there'd be messages like that on your group MyFace page, just because he sneezed." He grinned when the Jacksons laughed quietly. "Your fans will be fine."

He looked over at Rhuben as she quickly reached for her pocket, where her phone was sitting. The Power Rangers communicator sound had gone off, signaling that she had gotten a text. Ronan watched as Rhuben held onto her phone, as if struggling to figure out what to say back.

"Can I give you my two cents?" He asked, turning around and finding his keys. "I mean, I know you didn't ask me first, but-"

"Please," Rhuben replied as she looked up from her phone.

"From what I've noticed you dating over the years, the jerks that you dated, I could tell when you didn't really like them," Ronan said. "Cause you wouldn't really act any different than you did when…Robert was around. But when it was a guy that you actually did like, you became really shy. Like you are with Dak," He placed his hands on his hips as he thought for a moment. "Give yourself some slack," he instructed. "Things are getting better for you guys and you deserve to worry about your own happiness now, rather than just worrying about your brothers and sister." He then focused on all of them. "And that goes to all of you."

Rhuben slowly nodded.

Riley looked down at her feet.

Patrick and Noah exchanged glances.

Sydney ran a hand through his hair, purposefully making it fall over his eyes.

"I've got to go," Ronan looked at his watch. "I'll see you guys later," he called as he left the apartment. Ronan took the elevator down to the bottom floor, greeting the manager, as he went through the lobby. He then got into his car and started the half hour drive to the city to meet up with Mrs. Knight.

They had agreed to meet up at the Nordstrom Café & Coffee Bar again. It would be fitting, seeing as their topic of conversation was going to be what they had talked about last time. He thought about what had happened last time. As soon as he had told Kelly, Gustavo, and Mrs. Knight his plans on wanting to adopt the Jacksons, they all went silent. Then Gustavo demanded to know if Ronan was being serious, which he was. He explained it the best he could that for as long as he had known them, which was almost ten years at this point, he had seen them as his best friends and not as his clients. He gave them gifts on every gift giving holiday and their birthday, shocking them at first. He then explained how happy he was when he managed to win Riley and Rhuben over, after they outwardly expressed his dislike for him. Over the years when their band became successful, that friendship just grew stronger. And with what they had gone through before, he wanted to be sure that it didn't happen again.

But he didn't know how to go about that.

So he wanted to get Mrs. Knight's advice, especially since she was a single mother raising, technically, five kids on her own at the moment. So it was fitting that she was the one that he talked to. He couldn't talk to Gustavo, because he didn't have any kids of his own, and Kelly was too young, but she said that she supported him 100%, which was helpful. But he still had a tiny part in the back of his mind that questioned if he was doing the right thing.

Ronan pulled up to Nordstrom and got out, making sure to lock the car. He spotted Mrs. Knight standing by the front door and waved as he walked over to her. "Hey," he greeted her. "Thanks for agreeing to meet me," He said when he reached her. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

"It's no problem at all," Mrs. Knight replied as she smiled at him. "I just got here, actually."

"Alright," Ronan went over to the door and held it open for Mrs. Knight, allowing her to go in ahead of him. The two got a table and the waitress took their order. "Well, I guess I should just cut to the chase here. With the fact that they're going to have to go in for questioning soon and the potentially trial looming over our heads, I don't know the best time that I should tell them that I want to adopt them."

"Because you don't want them to be hit with everything at once," Mrs. Knight agreed. She thought for a moment. "Well, which would you think is the better option, sooner or later?"

"At this point, since we don't know how fast things are going to move, I don't know." Ronan said. He had a napkin in his hands and was slowly shredding it as he spoke. "I don't even know how they're going to react to it or if they even want me to be their father."

"I haven't seen them give anyone a fraction of the respect they give you," Mrs. Knight commented.

"Yeah, but that's because I've worked with them for so long," Ronan muttered. "At this point, I think they would respect Gustavo a bit more if he didn't yell so much because they've known him for a while too."

"I don't think even the boys would respect Gustavo with that much yelling." Mrs. Knight joked. She gave a sympathetic smile when Ronan didn't laugh. He had run out of napkin at that point and was now twirling a fork in his hands.

"And then I'm not sure how my parents would feel," Rona said with a sheepish smile. "They didn't really get along much when they first met at an industry party that we had. And whenever my parents come over now, my kids are on their best behavior, but I can tell that they're not that happy to see them. But still, my Dad has never said anything bad about them."

"And your mom?" Mrs. Knight pressed. She looked up and smiled a 'thanks' as the waitress came by with their cups of coffee.

"My Mother," Ronan grabbed some cream and sugar and started to pour them into his drink. "To put it lightly, is very critical of who me and my brothers associate ourselves with." He started to stir the liquid in his cup quickly. "She's been like that since we were kids. Honestly, I don't think she looks past my kids' appearance and just thinks that their just plain bad."

"Well, you were the one that suggested that they turn to that style of music," Mrs. Knight reminded him, laughing lightly at the annoyed look he sent her way. "So that's kind of your fault."

"I know that," Ronan admitted. "But I knew that their strengths didn't lie in pop music, especially with the talent that they have with their instruments. They were the ones that chose their own looks to match their personal style…I guess in my Mom's case it blew up in their faces." He shook his head.

"Ronan, this isn't about your parents," Mrs. Knight said, after taking a few quick sips of our own drink. "This is about you and them. I think that if you went to Linda and told her about what you wanted to do, she'd be able to help you. She's already seen the way that you are with them, has she come over to check on them recently?"

"Yeah, in Australia and, like, the day after we got back." Ronan cracked his knuckles. "She said that she can see that they're now in a stable environment." He shrugged. "I guess with Robert she was very wary about the way they lived."

"I can see why," Mrs. Knight mused.

Ronan's hands clenched into fists and they started to shake. He still got pissed whenever he thought about what he had done to them. Every time one of the Jacksons flinched, screamed, had a nightmare, thought of themselves as worthless, it killed him on the inside. All because of eight years of physical, emotional, and mental abuse from a man that was their foster father, who was supposed to give them a loving home. Ronan always wondered how someone could do that to someone else, but at this point, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear Robert's reasoning for it.

Mrs. Knight watched him, not sure if he would snap at her if he said anything. She knew what he was thinking, and she was just as mad as he was. If someone had hurt her own kids like that…she shook her head, pushing the thought away. Mrs. Knight took another sip of her coffee before speaking again.

"If it helps," she waited until she was sure that she had Ronan's attention. "I think that you would be a great father to them," Mrs. Knight said casually.

"What makes you say that?" Ronan asked. He looked skeptical.

"Because for as long as I have known you, you've always referred to them as 'my kids'," Mrs. Knight smiled.

* * *

><p>"So what are you doing today?" Jo asked as she, Camille, and Stephanie left the elevator and entered the PalmWoods lobby. "Kendall and I were going to go have a picnic," she shifted the blanket that was in her hands. But we could catch up later to talk about Katie's birthday party some more before we have our sleepover."<p>

"That works for me," Camille agreed. "I have to work on some lines for my audition anyway."

"What's it for this time?" Stephanie asked. She gave a little laugh as she adjusted the baseball cap on her head. "Is it another horror movie? I'm already getting warnings from my Dad about being the PalmWoods ghost again."

"No, my screaming is being put to rest for now," Camille said. Jo and Stephanie laughed. "I'm doing some lines for a comedy. I have to work on comedic timing and everything." She explained nervously. She held up her script and flipped through a few pages. "It's not my strong point."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, 'Mille," Jo put her arm around Camille's shoulders and leaned into her side. "We can help you run over them at our sleepover later." She then leaned over to look at Stephanie. "At your apartment this time, right?"

"Right," Stephanie verified.

All of a sudden, Camille faced forwards, blinked, and then let out a loud scream. Stephanie jumped, holding her hands over her ears, as Jo screamed loudly as well. She watched as they rushed across the PalmWoods, drawing everyone's gaze as they did so, to greet Riley and Rhuben. From the looks on their faces and their hands on their chests, the sudden screams had scared them as well.

Stephanie grinned as she hurried over to the twin girls, waiting for her turn as Jo and Camille gave them a hug.

"I can't believe you're back!" Camille gushed. Stephanie smiled as she hugged her two friends, noticing that although it wasn't to the same degree, they hugged her back; before they would just leave their arms at their sides.

"Yeah," Stephanie chimed in. "We didn't think that you guys were gonna be back until the end of the week."

"The guys didn't tell you?" Riley asked, giving them a confused look.

"Tell us what?" Camille asked, mimicking her look.

"Hey ladies," James greeted as he walked over to them.

He stood behind them, a slightly fearful look coming across his face when he noticed that Jo, Camille, _and_ Stephanie had all slowly turned to look at him. They each had a suspicious look on their face. James had been around and dated enough girls to know that whenever he got a look like that, he either did something wrong, or he was being silently accused of missing some sort of anniversary. He wasn't dating anyone, so he apparently had done something wrong.

"Riles, don't you remember?" Rhuben said, nudging her sister in the side. Riley gave her a look, narrowing her eyes slightly. "We told the guys not to tell them that we were coming back early. To _surprise_ them."

"Right," Riley lightly knocked herself on the forehead. "I must have forgotten."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Rhuben agreed. She looked over at James who mouthed 'Thanks, Beautiful' to her and gave her a wink. Rhuben smirked at him. 'You're welcome, Handsome' she mouthed back.

"Us girls are having a sleepover tonight," Stephanie told the girls. "Do you want to come?"

Rhuben hesitated for a moment before looking over at Riley. The two had a silent conversation for a few moments, along with their familiar facial expressions, eyebrow raises, and narrowing eyes. Finally Rhuben shrugged and the two turned back to the girls.

"Sure," Riley said.

"Cool," Jo beamed. "We're having it at Steph's apartment; we're also going to be talking about Katie's birthday party that is being thrown as a surprise for her, which of course you guys are invited to."

"Are _you_ inviting us or is Kendall asking you to invite us?" Rhuben asked.

"A bit of both," Jo replied. "He said if I ever see anyone that he doesn't get to, to go ahead and invite them." She then looked down at her picnic blanket again, missing the look that passed through the twin girls. "Speaking of, I'm going on a picnic with him now and I'm gonna be late if I don't get going." She started to walk away. "See you guys at eight." She called, leaving the PalmWoods.

"Bye guys," Camille held up her script as she started to walk to the pool. "I've got a script to memorize."

"And I'm meeting my Dad," Stephanie gave the peace sign before hurrying across the lobby. "Later." That left James, Riley, and Rhuben in the lobby.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" James asked Riley and Rhuben. He raised his eyebrows as he looked at them. "I figured that you would still be asleep."

"We had to talk to Miss. Collins about school work," Riley explained. "Just to see if we were ahead or behind in school while we were back home." She cracked her knuckles. "But I was just about to go on a bike ride, actually. I'm getting a bit too cooped up at Ronan's apartment."

"Mind if I join you?" James asked.

"If you want," Riley said dismissively. She turned to her sister. "What are you gonna do today?"

"Look for something to do, I guess," Rhuben said with a sigh. "If not, start my photography project, I've been procrastinating on it and I don't think Ronan will take too many other excuses as to why I haven't finished it yet." Riley nodded and waved before leaving the PalmWoods with James. Rhuben gave her sister a short wave in reply before looking around the PalmWoods lobby. There had to be someone that she could hang out with. At this point she would choose anyone or anything over having to listen to her brothers' snore like monster trucks.

"Hey Bella!"

Rhuben turned around and waved when she spotted Logan walking through the front of the PalmWoods.

"Hey," Logan repeated once he reached her. "How are you doing today? Still tired from your flight?" He shifted his backpack to one shoulder as he gave her a warm smile.

"A little," Rhuben admitted. "It takes a while to get used to the time change and everything again," she ran a hand over her face as she let out a small yawn. "I'm still running on Oz time." She then gave a half smile. "Other than that, I'm fine." She looked over at his backpack. "Homework?" She guessed.

"Yeah," Logan nodded as he looked down at the bag. "I just got back from the library, getting some research done for a science project that's due soon."

"Typical Logie," Rhuben commented. "Some things never change."

"And sometimes a lot does," Logan said, his tone turning serious. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't mean to put a damper on this conversation, but how are you _really_?" He put emphasis on the last word, looking hard at her. "Things can't be easy with Ronan, not with everything that's changing around you guys."

"Ah," Rhuben lightly kicked at the ground. "You know, that's one thing I really like about you, Logie-Bear, you can always tell whenever there's really something wrong." She cracked her knuckles. "Things are…_weird. _I guess that's the right word."

Logan tilted his head to the side. "Weird how?"

"Well, for one, we still don't have all of our stuff," Rhuben said, holding up a finger. "It's back at…home and we still can't go there because the police haven't officially arrested Robert yet." Her jaw tightened. "I don't think he's been in for questioning, either."

"I'm not talking about that," Logan said gently. "I'm talking about you guys and Ronan."

"Like I said, things are weird. We don't have all of our stuff and the stuff that we do have that we moved into his apartment, we haven't unpacked yet. Ronan says we can because it's now as much our home as it is his, but we don't see it that way. We still see it as his place, so we're trying to keep it as clean as possible; we try to keep out of his way. The only thing that things are typically the same, where we act like ourselves is when we're talking about music and our next album or whatever."

Rhuben shrugged again.

"Don't get me wrong," she said quickly. "It's nice that we have a new place to live and everything but…" she shook her head. "I don't know, I think something's up with Ronan. He's not telling us something."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Logan reassured her. "It probably just has to do with record sales or something and he just hasn't mentioned it yet. Don't stress it. But I have to admit it, you guys seem happier now," Logan noted.

Rhuben shrugged, tugging at the end of her hair. Finally, she reached up and pushed her hair back out of her face, lightly messing with her strand of purple hair. "I guess," she said finally.

"You're probably just not used to actually living with him now," Logan continued. "Hey, can I…ask you a question?" Rhuben nodded. As she waited for him to ask, her head suddenly whipped around and she looked around behind her. Logan's eyebrows lowered. "Is something wrong?"

"No!" Rhuben said a little too quickly as she turned back around. "I just…thought I heard someone calling my name." She grimaced. "What was your question?"

Logan studied her for a moment. He shifted his feet and rubbed his hands on the sides of his jeans before taking a shaky breath. "Are you dating Dak?" He asked.

Rhuben paused and looked at Logan, her face blank.

_Rhuben sighed once she got back to her room, shaking out her long hair so it reached its full length to her mid-back. The second show of hers and her siblings' Australian tour had just ended; thankfully it was in her hometown so she could get back to her bed every night. She sat down on the edge of her bed and surveyed the room, thankful that she had packed earlier than she needed to. That way, while she was waiting for her adrenaline to return to normal levels, she could just relax on her laptop._

_There was a knock on her door and she turned to see Dak in the doorway. He and Lizzie had gone out to Australia to see them do the first few shows of their tour. It was something that he had done ever since he started to help them in LA, two years prior. While they were still doing their shows in Sydney, Australia, and because of the space that they had in their house, the Jacksons opened their spare rooms for them to use._

"_Hey," he greeted her._

"_Hey," she replied, taking off her shoes. "What's up?"_

"_You had a great show, tonight," Dak said as he walked into the room, leaving the door open behind him._

_Rhuben lifted her head and gave him a funny look. "You said that last night," she pointed out. "And I'm pretty sure you're going to say that tomorrow, too."_

"_What can I say," Dak shrugged. "You guys always do great."_

"_Boofhead," Rhuben murmured. She pulled her feet up onto her bed and sat cross-legged as she looked at him. "What is it that you really wanted to talk about?"_

_Dak studied her for a moment before he let out a breath. "I wanted to talk about us," he said after a minute. Rhuben raised an eyebrow and he continued. "I mean, I know that we're not official or anything, but I just wanted to be sure where we are."_

"_Dak," Rhuben shook her head lightly. "We've been hanging out a lot since you got here…" she suddenly looked down at her hands. Dak could tell that she was nervous, and a bit uncomfortable with the conversation. She and her siblings had never really been ones to openly talk about their feelings. "I don't know…"_

"_You know how I feel about you, Rhu," Dak insisted, taking a step towards her._

_Rhuben kept her gaze down on her hands. "Yeah, I know," she agreed._

"_And I know that you dated jerks before, but I would never treat you like that." Dak continued. "I would never hurt you, not intentionally anyway."_

_Rhuben nodded. She lifted her head and looked straight at him. "I'll admit that I don't feel about you the same way I did before."_

"_As an annoyance?" Dak flashed a smile, letting her know that he was joking._

"_You never annoyed me," Rhuben corrected him. "I just…wasn't used to the attention. I don't __like__ a lot of attention," she corrected herself. "But…you've been my friend for such a long time. You're always there to help. You're always there for us. For me. "_

"_You're right, things are different now." He said. "So much different than we were before." He looked at Rhuben meaningfully. "There's something between us now, I know you know that." Rhuben looked back at him. There was something in her eyes that he couldn't exactly place. "It's like…" he thought for a moment._ _ "A guy is crazy about you, he pursues you. You're not into him and you're never going to be into him. And then one day it almost takes you by surprise because he's all you can think about. He's under your skin, in your heart, and in the air you breathe."_

"_Wait a second," Rhuben held up a hand. She gave Dak a look that was a cross between amusement and horror. "I never said that you were 'in the air I breathe'." She used air quotes around the words. "Or in my heart, for that matter."_

"_I know," Dak agreed. "I'm trying to talk myself up." He smiled when Rhuben smiled and laughed a little. "Anyway, I'm not going to rush you into anything," Rhuben looked relieved and that made him happier than ever. Just knowing that he could make her happy by understanding her was all that he wanted. "I just want to have fun and to see where things go." He smiled warmly at her. "I'm just glad that you're giving me the chance."_

_Rhuben nodded slowly. "I am too," she agreed._

_With that, he leaned forward to give her a kiss. This time, though, Rhuben seemed to want to kiss him back. She didn't turn away, like he had expected, she lightly placed her hands on his shoulders, leaning towards him as well…until the very last second at least. Dak gave her a kiss on the cheek and then straightened, giving her a teasing look._

"_I know that you don't like PDA or anything, but we're in __your __house," he reminded her. Rhuben gave him an odd look before pointing to the side. Dak followed her gaze and noticed Sydney sheepishly hovering in the doorway, his hand on his neck, looking embarrassed. _

_Sydney looked over at his sister and blinked an apology, sticking out his lower lip slightly. Rhuben smiled and pulled away from Dak, moving over to her baby brother and giving him a hug around the shoulders, which he eagerly returned._

"_Way to ruin a moment, Dude," Dak joked._

"_Sorry, mate," Sydney apologized, holding out Dak's cell phone. "But your mobile rang; I think it's your agent."_

"_Oh, then I have to take that," Dak grabbed onto his phone. He turned to Rhuben, noticing a troubled expression on her face. "Something wrong?"_

"_No," Rhuben shook her head. She looked down at Sydney, who tilted his head back to look back at her. He had the same troubled expression. "Nothing." _

"I mean, it wasn't hard to figure out that he went to Australia to visit you guys," Logan said with a shrug, continuing to watch his best friend. "And I can't help but see the ScuttButts that go around too."

Rhuben turned her head away from Logan. Her eyes narrowed and she stayed silent for a few moments, just breathing as she thought about what to say. Finally, she turned back to Logan. "That's not really any of your business, Logie."

Logan gave a half smile, noting that even if their conversation was serious, she still called him Logie. So she wasn't that mad, not very mad anyway. "I'd kind of say it was. I just…" he looked concerned. "Do you think it's a good idea? I mean, the fact that he's so big, people could start to pry into your private life."

"I don't remember asking you for your opinion," Rhuben said quietly.

"I didn't think best friends had to ask," Logan gave a cheeky smile, causing Rhuben's face to soften. "You don't have to explain anything to me," his tone changed. It was now gentle, understanding. It also held a hint of desperation, hoping that she knew that he really did want things to be good for her. "I just want you to be OK."

Rhuben let out a breath through her nose before reaching over and ruffling Logan's hair. She gave him a small smile before opening her arms. He was grateful for that; he didn't want to scare her by giving her a hug first. Logan smiled back, wrapping his arms around her, hugging her tightly.

* * *

><p>James coasted to a stop at the top of the hill. He wheeled his bike to the side of the path and looked down over the view. For a half hour bike ride, it was definitely worth it.<p>

He was a bit skeptical about going on the bike ride with Riley at first, but was glad to do it. The two talked more about the things that they talked about when they met the things that they were into. James wasn't surprised to find out that she was really into rock music, as that was the genre their band was in, but it was interesting to learn the kind of sports that she enjoyed as well. Not many girls he knew liked to watch sports on TV, even if they didn't get it. But as Riley explained it, she and Rhuben watched as many sports things as possible (while asking questions) so they had something to do with their brothers as a family. ("Other than making music together, making fun of each other and playing pranks on each other of course." Riley had added with a wicked smile).

On the other hand, he found that he was able to tell her how, while he did love hockey, he wasn't as big of a fan of it as Kendall. He liked to play, but he didn't like getting hit. He liked being aggressive, but he didn't like the idea of scaring other people. But he loved to play with his friends and he knew that his time left with them was short so he would do it as much as he could. He would even (ok maybe not) take a puck to the face for them.

James smiled as a gust of wind blew his hair out of his face.

You could see the ocean in the distance from where he was, but the view of the city is what took his breath away. Sure the smog covered most of it, something that he was not quite used to. But being able to see how big everything was put a lot in perspective for him. He and his friends were one of the many people that were trying to do the same thing, and _they_ were the ones that were achieving their dream. They were the ones that had a CD out and a tour under their belts.

He wouldn't believe it if he wasn't seeing it himself.

James turned around and watched as Riley peddled up to him. She was gasping for air and looked more than annoyed. Her feet were moving in a circle as she peddled, but it didn't seem that she was going that fast. When she finally stopped next to him, she pulled her helmet off and threw it to the ground before glaring at him.

"You just _had_ to choose _this_ hill to go up didn't you?" She demanded. Her face was as red as a strawberry. James chuckled. "It's not the fact that it's so fucking big," she waved her arms in the air. "But your legs are longer, so of course you could get up here _faster than me!_"

"Sorry," James apologized, holding onto the handlebars of his bike. He got off of the seat, balancing the bike between his legs. "I've heard about this path and I really wanted to try it out. I didn't think it would be that hard." He leaned over her bike and looked at it. "Which makes sense considering you don't have the gears set up right."

"I don't know how to work the gears, no one really taught me how." Riley replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's no wonder I like Motorcycles better."

"You drive a motorcycle?" James asked, his eyebrows rising.

"Every now and then." Riley gave a modest shrug. "Rhu and I got our license for that quickly after we got our regular licenses."

"I'm surprised Ronan let's you guys do it," James said with a light laugh.

Riley's face turned defiant. "Ronan can't really tell us what to do." She reminded him.

James fell silent. He was never sure what to say whenever something about their abuse was brought up. Even in a quick comment like that. He thought that when they came back from Australia they would be more open about everything, and while they were a bit friendlier than they were before they left, there was obviously still a lot of things that they wouldn't talk about. James didn't blame them. It was like his parents, he didn't talk about them for a reason, and most smart people never brought them up. So he had no room to judge.

"How are you guys doing, anyway?" James asked, unbuckling his helmet and putting it on one of the handlebars.

Riley let out an exasperated sigh. "I wish everyone would stop asking us that," she murmured.

"It's only because we care," James reminded her.

"I know," Riley leaned forward and gripped the handlebars of her bike tightly. She watched as her knuckles turned white, they filled up with blood when she let go. "I'm not used to it, I guess." She let out a breath. "I don't think I'll ever be used to it."

"What about when your Mom and Dad were still alive?" James asked gently, hoping that he didn't upset her.

"Don't really remember it," Riley said shortly. "There are things here and there that I remember. But not much, I guess I blocked out too much of it." She frowned. "Living with Ronan is fine. But…as weird as it sounds, it was better when Robert was still around and we'd just hang out with Ronan. Back then…things were easier and we didn't have the elephant in the room."

James sucked his lips into his mouth. Though he wasn't on the same level as Carlos, he never liked to see someone get upset about things that happened to them in the past. He was like Kendall in that sense, don't worry about the past and just keep looking forward. Maybe it would work them too?

"Hey," James said. When Riley looked up, he leaned forward, putting a hand on her bike to keep himself steady, and gave her a kiss on the mouth. When he pulled away, he was grinning from ear to ear and she looked at him oddly.

"What was that?" She asked in a low voice, she tightened her grip on her bike.

"I wanted to make you feel better," James replied. He sounded proud of himself.

"And you thought that would do it?" She asked incredulously. But she didn't wipe her mouth, like he had expected. She smirked back at him, her eyes flashing with challenge. She scoffed when James nodded, the challenging look now spreading to the rest of her face. "What makes you think that would work?"

"Because you have a crush on me," James stated. "'And for most girls a kiss from me would make their life."

"I don't have a crush on you," Riley denied.

"Yes, you do, I can tell," James grinned. He pointed directly at her. "You blush or giggle basically every time I say anything."

"I don't blush," Riley contradicted.

"Yes you do," James insisted.

"I don't giggle,"

"Yes, you do." James crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back. He was now sitting on the bike, one foot on the peddle the other on the ground. "It's alright if you have a crush on me, lots of girls do. And I know you do, too. So does Rhu. You can just go ahead and admit it."

"Alright," Riley flexed her fingers. "I had a crush on you when I first met you. Not so much now, but then I did."

"You actually admitted it?" James gave an exaggerated frown, forcing his lips down at the corners. "That fast? Aww, that's no fun."

"Well, you directly confronted me with it," Riley explained. "And I'm not afraid to admit it whenever I have feelings for someone." She paused. "For the most part."

"How come you didn't say anything?" James asked.

"You think that I could tell someone so handsome that I had a crush on him?" Riley asked teasingly. She gave a mocking sneer. "Please, I'm not that kind of girl that chases a guy like that." She then turned serious. "I was afraid of rejection, I suppose." She scoffed, more to herself than to James. "And then there's the fact that I'm not really looking for a relationship. I just got out of one before we came here to LA. Besides, what guy would want to be with me anyway? I'm worthless-"

"Stop," James said forcefully. He said it with so much power in his voice that Riley dropped her hand and squeezed her eyes shut as she turned away, letting out a slight gasp. "Those are Robert's words, not yours. None of what he said was true. You and your brothers and sister are amazing people, who I'm glad to be able to call my friends. I don't ever want to hear you talk like that again, alright?"

"Alright," Riley said quietly, nodding.

* * *

><p>"Where are you going?" Ronan asked later that night when he spotted Riley and Rhuben packing small duffel bags in their room. It was originally the guest room, and Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had said that their sisters could take it, so the three of them slept on the pull-out couch in the living room. At first the girls refused, but the boys insisted, saying that it was fine, as they were able to have the living room as long as they wanted and didn't have to worry about where to put their stuff.<p>

"Jo, Camille, and Stephanie invited us over to the PalmWoods for a sleepover," Rhuben explained as she sat back on her heels. "We figured that we should agree to it this time, especially since we turned it down so many times before."

"Oh, well, I think that it's a good idea," Ronan agreed. He looked up as Noah got off of the couch and walked over to his twin sisters, sitting next to them on the floor.

"Can I go too?" He asked. "Not to the sleepover of course," he said to their confused looks. "I mean, to the PalmWoods." He blushed lightly as he grabbed onto his shoes, rocking back and forth. "I mean, we haven't given the guys their souvenirs from Australia yet, and it might be a good idea to give the girls theirs at the same time, you know?"

"Yeah," Rhuben said after a minute, giving her brother a hard look. "That's fine." She then turned to Ronan. "As long as Ronan doesn't mind picking you up after you're done hanging out with the guys."

"No problem," Ronan replied, dropping down into a chair. He let out a sigh, rubbing a hand over his face.

"You look beat," Patrick commented as he got up from the couch and walked over to Ronan, leaning over his chair. "Like you just aged in the past thirty seconds."

"Pat, its called tact, look it up," Sydney snapped. Patrick stuck his tongue out at his little brother.

"I'm fine, just tired." Ronan replied, opening his eyes.

"It's only 7:45," Sydney pointed out, looking at his watch.

"I think that was his point," Riley explained. "Well, maybe we should give you some peace and quiet," Riley said as she got up from the floor, putting her bag over her shoulder. "Come on, guys." She motioned for her brothers to follow her to the front door. Rhuben grabbed her car keys off of the hook by the door and the five left the apartment.

They got into Rhuben's car and drove to the PalmWoods. On the way they talked about how they noticed that Ronan was acting weird. Though none of them could put an actual reason to it. They weren't going to snoop around and figure it out; they respected him too much to do it. For anyone else, they probably would, but not for him. When they got the PalmWoods, they found Jo, Camille, and Stephanie in the lobby, holding onto a grocery bag each.

"Hi Joey, Hi Stephie, Hi Cammie," Sydney greeted them with a smile and a wave.

"Hey," Jo smiled at the five of them. "Glad that you guys could make it." She shifted the bags that were in her arms. "We were just on our way up to Stephanie's apartment." She added.

"Oh wait," Patrick held up his hands. "You guys can't go before we give you your souvenirs from back home." He turned to Riley as she opened her bag and started to root through it. "We hope you like it. The stuff is pretty cool."

"I'm sure that we'd love it," Camille said helpfully.

"Here it is," Riley pulled out three large, wrapped items. She handed them over to the girls, who put their bags down and eagerly tore into the wrapping.

"Wow, Ugg boots?" Jo cried, her eyes shining as she held up her pair. Camille squealed, jumping up and down, at the pair that was in her hands. "This must have been so expensive. You really shouldn't have," She looked them over. "They're so cute too! Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sydney said with a warm smile.

"Uh, we knew that you weren't really into shoes," Noah explained to Stephanie as she opened her gift. "Well, at least not shoes like that, so we got you…" he trailed off as Stephanie opened her gift. She smiled and laughed when she opened the road sign that was in her hand.

"Kangaroo crossing," Stephanie grinned as she looked it over. "I love it. It's really cool." She turned to Noah. "Do they really have these all over Australia?"

Noah nodded.

"Awesome," Stephanie moved forward to give him a hug before giving the others one as well.

"You're welcome," Noah blushed and looked at his feet, allowing Camille, and Jo to give him a hug as well. "Um," he turned to his sisters. "We'll bring the guys their gifts; you can go on ahead and go to your sleepover."

"You sure?" Rhuben asked.

"Yeah, it's cool." Patrick confirmed. He scowled, when Rhuben moved over and gave him a kiss on the forehead, before doing the same to her other brothers. Riley then did the same, causing Patrick's scowl to deepen. But under his scowl was a smile. "We'll see you lot later." He said before he, Noah, and Sydney went to apartment 2J.

"What number is your room?" Riley asked as she and Rhuben started to follow the three girls over to the stairs.

"It's 7K," Stephanie replied. "My dad loves top floor views, and of course he wanted 'K' because of our last name." She led them up to the apartment and opened the door to find her father sitting on the couch, watching TV. "Dad, you remember Jo and Camille." She motioned over to Riley and Rhuben as Jo and Camille waved to Mr. King. "And this is Riley and Rhuben Jackson."

"It's good to meet you," Mr. King said as he got up from the couch and walked over to them with his hand out. The two girls shook his hand firmly. "I've heard a lot about you from Stephanie. Now, I doubt you've heard a lot about me, since she's always so into her films and stuff, but trust me, I really am her father."

"What a joker," Stephanie said, nudging her friends to her room. "Don't mind him; he's always making some sort of joke about something."

"He reminds me of Ronan," Rhuben said to Riley, who nodded in reply. She dropped her bag to the ground and slowly looked around the room and the memorabilia that was scattered about. "Uh…has anyone ever told you that you like Buzz Lightyear and Jack Skellington a _bit_ too much?" She reached over and picked up a stuffed Jack Skellington doll that was sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, my Mom has." Stephanie jumped onto her bed and kicked off her shoes. "But that's why she's back in Florida." She laughed at her own joke as Jo and Camille made themselves comfortable around the room.

"You said that Kendall was throwing Katie a surprise birthday party," Riley said as she and Rhuben sat down on the floor, taking off their shoes. "Do you have anything actually set up for it yet?"

"We're having it at the PalmWoods Pool," Camille said as she started to rummage through her own bag, probably looking for a list. "Just so it's easier for some people to come. We're planning on inviting some of her friends from back home."

"Does she even talk to them?" Rhuben looked skeptical. She shrugged when Jo, Camille, and Stephanie turned to her. "I mean, LaLaLand can change people. She spends most of her time with the guys or Lizzie anyway, so I wasn't sure if she still even talked to them."

"I'm sure we can get that info from the boys," Riley said to her, speaking of her brothers.

Camille smiled a little. It was funny to her, how she noticed that the two of them referred to Big Time Rush as 'the guys' and their brothers as 'the boys'. Even if they didn't notice it, it just showed that they valued Big Time Rush's friendship in a way that was as familiar as it was to their brothers. Of course she wouldn't bring it up to them, she would probably have that shot back in her face in a second, but it was still funny to see. Camille frowned for a moment as she looked at the twin girls. They were so different than how Logan had described them before, but the three of them were still best friends. She knew that she shouldn't feel this way, but the fact that they _were _best friends made her a bit nervous. It was hard for her to even win Riley and Rhuben over, so how was she really supposed to act around them when she was with Logan. With Logan she was really being herself, even if she did get a little overboard with her affection towards him, but he had that effect on her. She didn't want to make things weird between the three of them, since Logan valued their friendship that badly.

But she was his girlfriend, so shouldn't it be the other way around?

"Earth to Camille," Jo reached over and smacked Camille on the head with a pillow. "Aren't you going to write down that we need to get decorations?"

"Yeah, sorry," Camille giggled to diffuse the feeling that still nagged her as she picked up her list and started to write. "Well, what kind of decorations would she want? She's turning fourteen and she's not exactly a girly-girl."

"Just decorate everything in her favorite color," Stephanie suggested. "That's what I would do."

"Really?" Riley asked sardonically. "I figured black, white and neon green would be your scene."

"That too," Stephanie returned easily. "But if it were my party, we'd have to have a dance floor, too. It's not a party without a dance floor."

"You like to dance?" Rhuben asked, her eyebrows rising.

"If I'm not filming something, I'm dancing." Stephanie replied.

"Cool." Riley nodded.

"So, tell us about your trip back home," Jo urged. "I mean, the shows must have been fun, bigger production and all that. Blah, blah, blah." She grinned. "But what about the boys? Any cute ones over there?" She looked at Rhuben. "I mean, I know you're dating Dak, but still." She ignored Rhuben rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up into the air. "There has to be some cute ones."

The twins snorted in unison. "You could try and find some, but I'm not going to bother with it for a while." Riley pushed her pig-tails behind her ears. "They're either complete jerks or just plain idiotic."

"Oh," Jo sat up straight. "Do you have some bad exes or something?"

"Or something," Rhuben muttered. She nodded over at Camille, who pulled a bottle of nail polish out of her bag. "I can do your nails," she offered. When Camille gave her a surprised look, she shrugged and looked away. "I mean, if you want."

"Thanks," Camille smiled as she held out the nail polish. When Rhuben took it, she held out her right hand for the nails to be painted.

"Well, what about the plans for your next CD?" Stephanie asked, changing the subject. "You must be excited to start working on it soon. I mean, you guys generally release them one right after another, so you're probably starting on it soon." She pulled her laptop over to her and started to look through her ScuttleButter.

She laughed when she saw Patrick's latest ScuttButt from earlier that day: **PatrickJackson (SparkyThunder): 6 Red Bulls, 6 Rockstars, 12 Monsters, and 23 Water Bottles all found while cleaning up today. It's a surprise we're not constantly in the bathroom. #RockstarProblems**

"We're supposed to be talking about it soon, but we have a lot of promotion to do for our other ones first," Riley replied, resting her hands on the floor behind her as she leaned back.

Jo wasn't really surprised that she didn't want to talk about it. It probably would have just reminded her of their abuse, it was Robert that had been pushing them to do nothing but their best on their most recent and past CDs. Rumor had it that they would be worked for more than 15 hours if he was in an especially bad mood. That was what Kendall had told her anyway. She didn't want to talk about it, probably on the same level as the Jacksons didn't want to talk about it, but most conversations with Kendall, or any of the other boys, turned to that topic. They couldn't help it, with the possibly trial looming over their heads, it was bound to come up every once in a while.

She just wished it hadn't when they were on their date that afternoon. Sure they were able to stray from it, and yeah they ended their date like they usually did, kissing before she had to leave to get ready with the girls. But she knew that it was still in the back of Kendall's mind. Especially since he blamed himself for not saying anything about it sooner.

Jo smiled to herself.

Their date had been perfect, other than that one moment. But their dates were always perfect; she probably wouldn't have been able to find a guy like Kendall if she had stayed back in North Carolina. And while they hadn't been together for that long (though 6 months was a long time if you were their age) she knew that he was something that she could potentially grow to love.

"Thinking about Lover-Boy again?" Stephanie asked teasingly.

"Maybe," Jo pushed her hair behind her ears.

"It's funny, when we first met you, we thought that you were Kendall's cousin or something," Rhuben remarked. She smirked and gave a low laugh when Jo's eyes widened in disbelief. "You look exactly like him. Blonde hair and big eyebrows."

"Only they work on you," Riley added.

"You sounded so convincing," Stephanie teased. She looked over at Jo, who pouted and had her hands up over her eyebrows. "Jo, I told you before, they look fine."

Sometimes Stephanie wondered how she could be such good friends with Jo and Camille, when they were so girly and she wasn't. But after she explained to them that she was the PalmWoods ghost and that she was just making a movie, they became friends almost instantly. Of course it helped that they all hung out with the boys whenever they got the chance. But she still wondered what it was that made them friends if she liked to watch sports a dance and go to Disneyland, when Jo would rather play the guitar or travel, and Camille would rather do yoga or…make out with Logan.

She believed that part of it was because she was the only one that didn't obsess with her boyfriend. That was the nicest way she could put it. While Jo only seemed to hang out with them when she wasn't with Kendall (whom Stephanie realized she was always with, she never seemed to hang out with James, Logan, or Carlos at all) and Camille typically was in some sort of PDA make-out frenzy with Logan if she wasn't helping with some plan to get out of trouble.

Stephanie would usually go along with the plans to help film them and post them on the internet, but at least she was able to spend time away from Carlos and be her own person. _Not that I don't want to be their friend, _Stephanie thought. _I just don't get how we can be so close sometimes._

Stephanie moved through the music on her laptop and started to blast Outkast's Hey Ya. The girls listened to music and ate some food as the sleepover went on. Riley and Rhuben opened up a bit more as they talked about some of the things that they had done back home for fun while they were on break; Went to the beach (of course), went to the skate park, worked on a few demos (as they couldn't get away from music) did some appearances, visited their brother's college campus to see where he would be living, and just hung out at home with their pets. After listening to almost every song on Stephanie's iTunes, they decided to start watching some horror films, choosing to start with _A Nightmare on Elm Street._

"Hey, do you have the movie box?" Riley asked as the movie started. "I want to see what some of the special features are."

"It's over on my desk," Stephanie said, turning and pointing over her shoulder.

She settled back onto her bed, holding a pillow in her lap, keeping her eyes on the screen. Kellan Lutz was walking through the diner, Freddy Krueger following him, lightly running his knives together, making a grating sound.

The girls turned around when they heard a thud and the sound of glass breaking. Riley stood behind Stephanie's desk, looking down at what was left of the mirror, an odd look on her face. Suddenly she shook her head, sucking in a breath and seemed to focus on the mirror.

"Oh, sorry," she said, turning to Stephanie. "I accidentally broke your mirror."

"It's alright." Stephanie waved a hand. "It was an old mirror anyway." She went over to the desk and carefully started to pick up the broken shards. "You actually did me a favor." She nudged Riley with her shoulder. "Maybe now I can film everything that happens in the next seven years to see if there really is such a thing as bad luck."

"I'm sure you'll get an award for it, Steph," Rhuben muttered. She locked eyes with her twin and raised her eyebrows. Riley lowered hers and nodded slightly in reply. Rhuben nodded back and turned onto her stomach.

She knew what happened and it wasn't a good idea to make a big deal of it now.

"Your hands bleeding," Jo pointed out. Riley looked over at her hand and saw that it was indeed bleeding. Jo scrambled off of Stephanie's bed. "I'll go get a towel." She said, leaving the room.

"Are you ok?" Camille asked as Riley sat down on her sleeping bag on the floor.

"Yeah," Riley held her injured hand in her other one. "I'm fine."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Next chapter has more of Patrick, Noah, Sydney and Carlos. I hope that you guys liked the chapter.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	34. Q and A

**.:Chapter Thirty–Four – Questions and Answers:.**

"_Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers." ~Tony Robbins_

* * *

><p>"So what do you guys want to do today?" Carlos asked with an eager smile, rubbing his hands together. He jumped over the back of the orange couch and landed on it next to Logan, causing him to let out a sound of fright, fumbling the remote. "What's up with you" He asked, giving Logan an odd look. "You look like I just caught you doing something bad."

"Ha," Kendall laughed loudly on the way to the door of the apartment. "The time you catch Logan doing anything bad, on his own free will," he added, shooting Logan a pointed look. "I'll swear off of hockey; and we both know that that's not going to happen." He lifted a hand. "I'll see you guys later,"

"Where are you going, Kendall?" Katie asked as she walked out of her room, looking at her brother curiously. She felt herself start to become a bit nervous. She knew what was coming next; it was the same thing each time she asked him lately.

"I'm going to hang out at the pool with Jo," Kendall replied. He couldn't help the smile that slid onto his face. He always got a goofy smile on his face whenever he thought about Jo. Sometimes Katie was sure that his face was going to be frozen that way.

Katie frowned. "Wait, I thought that we were going to go to the movies today," she crossed her arms over her chest. "Remember? To see the new zombie movie?" She stared hard at her brother. "We always go and see it during opening week and make me look young enough to try and sneak me in for free." She pouted. "And the week's almost over."

"I know," Kendall looked apologetic. "But Jo said she needed help on her audition lines and they're at the end of the week too," He moved over to Katie and gave her a kiss on the side of the head. "We can go next week, I promise. _And _we can see it twice and I'll buy you your popcorn."

"Alright," Katie sighed, looking at her feet.

"Thanks Baby Sister, I'll see you later," Kendall gave her a wide smile before slipping out the front door of the apartment.

Carlos gave Katie a sympathetic smile as she walked over to the couch and flopped down onto it, between her and Logan. Ever since they had gotten out to LA, Carlos wondered how she was doing when it came to making friends. He knew that she seemed to drive them away, as she had a habit of being a bit too aggressive for most girls, but for the Jacksons, she seemed to become friends with them pretty quickly. With Lizzie too. But the only problem was that she was the only one that wasn't in their line of work, so she, more often than not, was left in the apartment with her mother, if she wasn't scamming some people in the PalmWoods. It probably didn't help matters much now that Kendall had a girlfriend. Even Carlos noticed that he seemed to be spending more time with Jo than with him and Logan and James. It had been months since the last time they had played hockey together.

"Don't worry Katie, you can hang out with us today," Carlos said, putting his arm around her and patting her shoulders.

"Wow, I can hang out with you guys," Katie turned and looked at the TV. "Watching the Science channel." She shook her head. "Where's James?"

"At the gym," Logan replied, his eyes still on the TV. "Where else?" He then slowly turned and gave her an offended look. "And there's nothing wrong with watching the Science channel."

"Yes, there is," Carlos and Katie said in unison, rolling their eyes.

"Even going to the gym with James sounds more interesting than this," Katie said, getting to her feet.

Carlos smiled to himself. "That's because you have a crush on him," he said softly enough so that Logan could hear. A smile slid onto Logan's face and the two started to laugh. Katie whipped around and grabbed onto a pillow and started to beat them over the head with it, shouting at the top of her lungs that she never had and never will have a crush on James. "Don't tell us that," Carlos cried, moving his hands up to shield his face. "Tell James!"

Katie was still hitting Carlos and Logan over the head with the pillow when Mrs. Knight came in from doing the laundry. She let out a wary sigh and placed the basket that she was carrying on the kitchen counter before walking over to the two boys and Katie. She reached over and pulled the pillow from Katie's hands.

"Thank you, Mama Knight," Carlos said, lowering his arms and sitting up straight. "I think she was actually trying to kill us this time."

"I wouldn't put it past her," Logan agreed, still holding his arms up. He only lowered them when he noticed the strange look on Mrs. Knight's face. "What is it?" He asked curiously.

"Where are Kendall and James?" she asked quietly. Her hands were running over each other.

"Kendall's with Jo, of course," Katie replied.

Carlos could hear the annoyance in her voice. She was usually really good at hiding her feelings, but when it came to her brother, and because the two of them were so close, she got especially hurt if they had plans that were broken or if he was mad at her for something. Carlos knew that, even if she wouldn't say it out loud, that she was starting to feel like she was being pushed aside for everything that came with being in LA and being in a band.

_The worst part was that she didn't even want to come out here, _Carlos turned his attention back to Mrs. Knight, who asked, once more, where James was. "He's at the gym, last we checked."

"What's going on?" Logan asked. He and Carlos exchanged glances. "Did something happen?"

"Not exactly," Mrs. Knight lightly chewed on her lower lip. She looked like she didn't want to say anything. Finally, she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "We have to go to the police station. They want to take us in for questioning."

Carlos's heart dropped to his feet. His mouth dropped open, but he couldn't really think of anything intelligent to say. "Like…right now?" He asked. Logan elbowed him in the side, causing Carlos to shrug.

Mrs. Knight nodded. "Yes, right now, we need to the find the boys and get going now,"

"Ok, we'll take Katie to the car." Carlos got up from the couch and put an arm around Katie's shoulders, leading the three of them out of the apartment.

As they went through the lobby and got into the car, the three of them were quiet. Carlos couldn't help but think of everything that they all had gone through when Robert was around. The secrets, the lies, the accusations, the constant questions… Now they were going to have to relive all of those moments again, when things were getting better for everyone. Their tours had done well and they were still waiting to hear how their first CD did while they continued promotion for it as Gustavo made them start to think about things they wanted for their second album. Everything had been moving pretty quickly, not it had just screeched to a halt.

Mrs. Knight, Kendall, and James got into the car and Mrs. Knight drove to the police station. When they got inside, Carlos was slightly surprised to see Dak and Lizzie already there, sitting in a few chairs as police officers walked back and forth, up and down the hallway around them. Lizzie looked up and waved at Katie before moving over to her to give her a hug. Dak stood up behind them, giving them a friendly nod and a smile, despite the circumstances.

"You guys are here too?" Katie asked. She looked a bit uncomfortable as Lizzie gave her a hug, though she reached up and hugged her back.

"Yeah," Dak gave each of the boys a high-five/handshake in greeting. "They wanted to question us to see if there was anything that we had noticed a couple of years ago."

"_Did _you notice anything?" Logan asked, his eyebrows lowering.

"Not really," Lizzie pushed her blonde hair behind her shoulders. "But back then, Robert may have been a bit more careful about everything. And the Jacksons weren't always here, they were mostly back in Australia, so there was no way that we could actually prove anything."

"Well, at least we can help them now," Katie shrugged. She then looked Lizzie up and down. "What's up with the tutu?" she asked her upper lip curling with disgust. It was too frilly for her taste, but it worked on Lizzie.

"Oh," Lizzie looked down, as if she had just noticed that she was wearing it. "I was taken out of a dress rehearsal early."

"Have the Jacksons been yet?" James asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, "This can't be easy for them."

"Haven't seen them," Dak shrugged. "And we've been here all morning, they say that we can leave soon, but with something like this, they ask you the same thing about five different ways to make sure that you're really going to stick to your story."

"That's just the way that the system works," Logan explained with a weary sigh. "They do it to trip you up, to see if you're lying, or to try and jog your memory, if you've forgotten something."

"Wow, I didn't expect all of you guys to be here," Ronan said as he and the Jacksons slowly entered the police station, looking around as they went. "Did they just call you to come by?" He asked when he stopped by his friends. He got nothing but silence in reply. Ronan blinked a couple of times before looking at the group. "I'm guessing you've never been in for questioning before?" He joked, trying to lighten the tension.

"They're just a bit nervous," Mrs. Knight said, pulling her purse up her shoulder.

"It's not that bad," Ronan said with a wave of his hand. "We were questioned back in Australia, they just want to be sure that you have your story straight." He gave everyone a disarming smile. "Just know that whatever you tell them is helping them with their case."

"So what do we do while we're waiting to be questioned?" Kendall asked, lightly kicking at the ground. "Do we just wait? And what about Jo, Stephanie, and Camille? Shouldn't they be here too?"

"If they're not here yet, they may not be needed until later," Ronan said patiently. He looked at the Jacksons, who were on the other side of the police station, looking at some pictures and plaques that were set up. "There may be two trials that we have to go through, if it's taken to court," he explained. "Because the abuse happened in Australia and California, officials from both areas have to be involved. We were questioned when we were back in Australia and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the information was given to the police officers here, to help speed along some of the process."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Logan nodded. Everyone looked up as someone cleared their throat. They turned to see a tall, stern looking officer standing behind them, his arms behind his back.

"My name is Officer Monahan," he said, his grey eyes moving over everyone. "I'm going to be the one that's assisting in your questioning today." He rolled his shoulders. "We just want you to be as cooperative as possible to help us with this investigation." He looked over at the Jacksons as they walked over to the group, staying silent. "We want the best outcome that we can get for this situation."

"If you don't mind me asking," Ronan broke in. "Do you know if Robert Jackson has been brought in yet?"

Officer Monahan hesitated for a moment. "He had been in police custody for a couple of days before he was released on bail," he replied. "And as far as I know, he is to be brought in for questioning today as well. There are some things of his story that aren't adding up. And then there's his past that we have to look through…"

"How big of a chance do you think that there is of this going to trial?" Riley asked, getting to the point. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave the Officer a hard stare. "Depending on the evidence that was documented at the hospital as well as what we say or what they say," she motioned to herself and her siblings before motioning over to Big Time Rush. "What do you think could happen?"

"That all really depends on what the interrogator says," Officer Monahan said. He gave a slight sigh. "And since I'm assuming you all are pressing charges, that's a big part of it as well."

Riley nodded.

"So we're going to take you all to a room to ask you a few questions," Officer Monahan continued. "It shouldn't take too long." He turned and looked at Mrs. Knight. "Would you mind going first?" He asked.

Mrs. Knight nodded and walked off with Officer Monahan.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Katie asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"We wait," Sydney replied as he sat down in a chair and crossed his legs. He reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled out a Nintendo DS. He bent his head over and started to play on the game. Everyone else started to wander around, not sure what to do.

Carlos sat down in an empty seat and rested his elbows on his knees. Normally he would be bouncing off of the walls, trying to find something to do to keep him entertained. But he knew that if he did it at the police station, he might actually be arrested. He smiled to himself, the last time he had been threatened with that was when he was trying to help Kendall get freed from the security that Gustavo had called on Kendall after he verbally abused their music producer. Now here they were in LA, with one CD finished and starting the preliminary work on their next one.

Carlos sighed and leaned back in his seat, already restless. He looked around; he couldn't help but notice that Dak had pulled Rhuben aside, off down the hall so no one would bother them.

"Are you ok?" Dak asked, rubbing her arms.

"I'm fine," Rhuben knocked his arms away and took a step back, away from him. "God, I'm sick of hearing that question."

"You know it's only because we care," Dak slid his hands into his jeans pockets.

'Yeah, well, people care too freaking much," Rhuben replied. "It was so much easier when this whole thing was a secret. Or if they weren't the ones that were around to figure everything out. Then so many people wouldn't know, you wouldn't know, and we wouldn't have Ronan being called by every gossip site on the entire planet." She scowled. "I can only imagine what they're saying back home."

Dak held up his hands defensively, taking a cautious step towards her. "I'm sorry, ok? You guys are my friends and I worried. I wanted to be sure that you were ok after being questioned. They asked me the same thing, like, three times, I knew it had to be harder on you all since you went through it back home already and now you're going to be questioned again."

"Whatever," Rhuben shook her head. She let out a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest. She then took a quick look around before standing up on her tip-toes, giving Dak a kiss. Dak smiled and kissed her back.

Carlos turned away; it wasn't any of his business. He was just glad that his friends were starting to get better. He couldn't help but wonder if the questioning was just going to make them turn back to what they used to be before. If Robert was supposed to be brought in for questioning that day, he knew that they were going to be partially on edge, wondering if he was going to pop out of nowhere and hurt them.

"God it's so boring here," Carlos murmured.

"Tell me about it," Patrick agreed, from where he was sitting next to Carlos. "These places can be pretty dull," he shrugged. "The one back in Australia wasn't bad, because we knew a lot of the officers there, so while we waited we were able to get some tours and watch how they handled criminals and stuff."

"Ha," Carlos laughed. "Maybe we'll be able to see Robert get brought in with handcuffs," Carlos laughed at the image of the tall, intimidating man being dragged into the building, kicking and screaming. He stopped laughing when he realized that Patrick was just nodding quietly, Noah was merely looking at him, and Sydney had hunched his shoulders up to his ears, obviously having heard what Carlos said. Carlos quickly started to wave his hands. "I'm sorry; I'm a complete and utter jerk."

"It's alright," Patrick said softly. "Once something happens, it happens. And you can't stop yourself form remembering, no matter how hard you try, because when you try to stop yourself, it's the same as if you'd thought of it."

"That sounds like something that Logan would say," Carlos pointed out.

"Then we spend _way_ too much time with you guys," Noah replied, causing Carlos to smile. "When are you going to get started on your next CD?"

"Don't know," Carlos shrugged. "Gustavo hasn't said anything to us about it yet. But then again, I don't think he actually trusts us to do things that he tells us to. So we probably won't know about it until Kelly tells us."

"I wonder where Gustavo is," Sydney mumbled, his eyes still on his game. "I figured he'd be here, wanting to use everything in his power to make Robert's life miserable."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Carlos agreed. "What was it that the two didn't like about each other anyway? They're just as bad as Gustavo and Ronan."

"Not really," Noah denied. He slouched in his seat, resting his head on Patrick's shoulder. "Gustavo and Ronan have been friends for a long time; you just wouldn't think so because they're always ribbing each other. Gustavo and Robert on the other hand, they absolutely hate each other's guts."

"We don't even know what it was that made them start hating each other," Sydney jumped in. "Personally, I believe that they realized that their personalities and future endeavors were so similar that it caused Gustavo to react in an obsessive compulsive way."

Carlos gave him a blank look. He turned to Patrick and Noah, who shrugged in reply.

Sydney sighed loudly. "Their rivalries of doing the same thing, as well as a past memory, they hate each other's guts." He said simply.

Carlos moved his jaw back and forth as he turned and gave Patrick and Noah an odd stare. "Why couldn't he just come out and say that?"

"We've been wondering the same thing for years." Patrick replied.

Carlos laughed along with Patrick and Noah. He was glad that he was able to make them laugh, for the time being it was getting them to forget why they were at the police station and that was all he wanted. He looked around at his friends as they continued to wander around the police station in silence. Riley and James were talking to a police officer who was sitting at the front desk; every now and then James would send a bright smile her way, causing her to either give a half-smile in return or roll her eyes and shove him away, Dak, Lizzie, and Katie were talking to each other about something, animatedly moving their hands around, Kendall, Rhuben, and Logan were talking to Ronan, and Carlos was with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney.

He had always found the three boys easy to talk to, at least easier than Riley and Rhuben, and he was glad that it was still easy to talk to him. He just remembered the advice that Julius had given him in the first place, he realized that before they were just too scared to talk about themselves too much, in case they said too much or they said something that didn't add up to something that they had said before. But when Robert wasn't around, like the times they had the sleepovers at apartment 2J, they acted like any normal boy (despite the fact that they were so polite to Mrs. Knight that it put Logan to shame). The four of them wasted some time talking about the kinds of things that Carlos and the boys had gotten into when they were back in Minnesota and the time they had been in LA before the DarkElements had gotten there.

Before he knew it, Mrs. Knight had come back and Carlos was the next one to be taken in for questioning.

Carlos immediately broke out into a sweat. He slowly got to his feet, his hands shaking as he followed Officer Monahan to a small room; it only had a mirror on one side and a table on the other. A police officer was sitting on one side of the table, an empty chair was on the other, and across from the empty chair was a man in a business suit.

"Sit down," Officer Monahan pointed to the empty seat. Carlos did as he was told, moving slowly. "There's no need for you to be scared, we just want to ask you a few questions so we can get a good case against Robert Jackson."

"Ok," Carlos licked his lips as he sat down. His stomach was making gurgling sounds, causing him to feel sick. It was times like these that he hated that he was known as the sensitive one, it made him so empathetic that I basically made him feel what the other person was feeling. But this time, it just made him want to throw up. "That's fine."

Carlos sat down and looked at the mirror to his left. His reflection looked back at him. His eyes were wide and he could see his chin and his hands were shaking. He did his best to stop shaking and to act confident.

_I'm doing this to help my friends, _he reminded himself. _I'm doing this to make sure that things get better for them. _Carlos placed his hands in his lap, turning away from the mirror and looking at everyone in the room. Officer Monahan gave him a nod before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. _He must be going to listen to our conversation. Logan called these one-way mirrors I think._

"It's nice to meet you Carlos," the second officer leaned forward and offered his hand. Carlos took it and shook it firmly. The officer gave him a look as he retracted his hand and wiped it on the side of his pants, Carlos's palms were flooded with sweat. "My name is Officer Kincaid," he motioned to the man sitting across from Carlos. "This is Hodges; he will be asking you questions today."

"Nice to meet you," Hodges nodded.

"You too," Carlos squeaked.

"So let's cut to the chase, shall we," Hodges picked up his pen, a notepad resting on his lap. "How did you meet the Jacksons?"

"Oh," Carlos licked his lips, the first question making him feel a little better. "Well, they signed a contract with Gustavo at Rocque Records to help me and my friends make it big in the US. Because they're so famous in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, and Brazil and stuff, they decided to come to the US to try and make it big here. Gustavo jumped on the deal to try and use the publicity from their band to help us get bigger."

"Carlos, you haven't answered the question," Hodges pointed out patiently. "How did you meet them?"

"Oh!" Carlos blinked a couple of times. "Sorry, well, we met because they invited us to go on set of the music video that they were shooting and we met them there." He said, running his hands up and down his pants legs.

"And how were they on set that day?" Hodges asked. "When you first met them, I mean? How were they?"

"Professional," Carlos said with a nod. "They're always very professional when it comes to them working on their music. They know when to have fun and they know when to be serious. On set that day, they introduced themselves nicely, and showed us around set and the make-up trailer and stuff."

Hodges nodded as he took down some notes.

"But," Carlos wrinkled his nose as he thought back to that day. "When Robert was around, they would do a complete 180." He looked at his feet. "They would clam up and look at the ground, or just look away from him in general. They wouldn't say anything unless he directly asked them a question or if they looked at him first."

"Like, to see if they had permission to speak?" Officer Kincaid asked.

"Yes," Carlos nodded like a bobble-head. "Like that. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but as the months went by and we continued to work with them, things started to get weirder." He cracked his knuckles, his feet bouncing up and down. "They would make excuses to leave early if they needed to, they didn't open up as fast as most people would, Gustavo actually had to schedule a day where we could hang out together to get to know each other. If we did ask them something about themselves, they would take a while before answering, as if they were making sure that things they were saying was ok."

"How about their behaviors?" Hodges asked. He leaned forward and looked hard at Carlos. "Anything weird about that?"

"Well," Carlos rubbed the back of his neck. "Riley is always very blunt, she says exactly what she's thinking and doesn't seem to care about the other person's feelings. Rhuben is the one that mostly thinks before she speaks; to be sure that what she's saying is ok. She can be kind of cold at times too, sort of insulting. The two of them can be kind of aggressive too; Patrick and Noah were a bit more open than they were, Patrick mostly. But they were always kind of skittish, they like to be around each other a lot, and that makes sense because they're twins, but they seem to be very dependent on each other. They seem to act like parents to Sydney, along with Riley and Rhuben, rather than his brothers and sisters."

"In situations like this, if they feel that they don't have a good parental figure, the older siblings will generally move into that role," Hodges explained.

_Like Kendall, _Carlos nodded. His heart nearly stopped when he remembered that he had possibly seen his father recently. He blinked a few times and then continued to explain his story.

"At the sleepovers that we had at apartment 2J, the boys would be sure to change in the bathroom, even though they could easily just use some of our rooms to do it." Carlos struggled to think of it. "I know that they had nightmares a few times…"

"That's the next thing that I wanted to ask," Hodges prompted. "Were there any bruises or marks that you've seen on them?"

"Not exactly," Carlos admitted. "I never saw them myself, not really anyway. If I did, and I asked about it, they would easily make up an excuse for it. They fell; they ran into a door, they were roughhousing too much." He shrugged. "I believed them, of course, because I didn't have a reason not to believe them. The only thing we thought was weird was there would be times that we would move to give them a high-five or something and they would flinch. A loud sound and then would dive to the floor. If we moved quickly, they would squeeze their eyes shut and turn away. There was also a time that Sydney had a nightmare during a sleepover and Sydney had a nightmare. And these were, like, loud, terrified screams. Patrick said that everything was ok and we dropped it after that. But then there was always little things, Riley and Rhuben seemed to get nastier towards us, trying to push us away from them, and then when we were in New York, I found them sleeping in the lobby one day and I think they had been sleeping there all night."

"Is that everything?" Hodges insisted. "Is there anything else you can give us? Any information that you have will be needed."

"Um," Carlos squeezed his eyes shut, wracking his brains for as much information as he could think of. "They don't have any problems with Ronan; they're really good with him. Uh, Robert would work them really hard most das, sometimes for most of the day. When they would come to work with us, they would either be really tired or in a lot of pain." He moved his mouth to the side. "And then Jo, Camille, and Stephanie would notice the same thing whenever they would hang out. They didn't really get along at first, but they're ok now. Stephanie, she's my girlfriend, she would tell me that she would notice bruises on them or a limp or that they would be really tired sometimes."

"And you think it's from Robert overworking them or…hurting them?" Hodges asked, staring hard at Carlos.

Carlos nodded back ._What else could it be? They couldn't just fall over and 'just so happen' to get bruises like that, it would be way too convenient. _He leaned back in his seat, looking at the ceiling. He never thought that he would be in a police station, let alone for something like this. He never thought something like this would even happen, that abuse was only something that you heard about on the news, not something that happened to people that you worked with. But the evidence was too overwhelming.

There was no way that Robert would be able to go free with everything stacked again him. Not if Carlos had anything to do with it.

"I just want to be sure that I help them," Carlos said quietly.

"Trust me son, you have."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Sorry this chapter was kind of short. But I hope that you guys enjoyed it anyway. I didn't show everyone being questioned because I wanted to show more of Carlos, but you'll see flashbacks of it as the story goes on.

Just so you know, I'm not showing a lot of the relationships for the same reason that I'm not showing too much of the back-stories for Dak, WayneWayne, Lizzie, Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, because it's supposed to focus on BTR's and DE's friendship. But if it is shown, it's important; that being said, there's some relationship stuff coming up.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	35. Rockstar PART 1

**.:Chapter Thirty–Five – Rockstar Part 1:.**

"_I lead two totally separate lives. There are times when I have to slip into rock star mode." ~Martin Gore_

* * *

><p>"Blazing Phoenix Records?" Carlos questioned, tilting his head back to look up at the large building. He wrinkled his nose as he tilted his head to the side, studying the building. Looking around him, he noticed that Kendall, Logan, and James looked just as confused as he did. "What are we doing here?"<p>

"Yeah," Kendall agreed, turning to his mother. She stood next to the boys, her purse hitched up her shoulder, a pleasant smile on her face. "Shouldn't we be at Rocque Records?"

"Well, Gustavo said that he and Kelly had to meet up with Griffin today," she laughed lightly when Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James made sounds of agreement. Everyone knew how much Gustavo hated Griffin, so if he was willingly meeting up with him, something was up. "And Gustavo said that I should take you guys to Blazing Phoenix Records so you can go over your new rules with Ronan while they're at the meeting."

"Ok, but why did we have to get up so early for it?" James asked. "You really cut into my beauty sleep you know." He started to think. "It's going to take me ages to get back on my sleep schedule."

"Your sleep schedule will be fine," Mrs. Knight said as she walked over to the front door. She grabbed onto the handle and pulled the door open with a quick yank. She motioned for the boys to follow her as she walked over to the receptionist.

"May I help you?" The young woman greeted the five of them with a warm smile. "Oh wait," she held up a finger before Mrs. Knight could answer and leaned forward. She flipped through a few papers on her desk and then picked up a small sheet of paper. "You must be Kacy and Big Time Rush, here for a 9 o'clock meeting." She looked up and nodded when Mrs. Knight told her that it was what they were there for. "You can go ahead, the conference room is on the third-"she suddenly leaned to the side and waved a hand. "Miss. Riley, you can take them up to the conference room."

The boys turned around and smiled when they saw Riley stop in her tracks, looking at them oddly. They had gone to the police station to get questioned the week before, and since then, they hadn't seen much of their friends. Ronan said it was because they were starting to write songs again, but the boys were sure if it were true at that point. But they didn't take it to heart either. Riley had a large brown box underneath her right arm, a stack of envelopes in her left hand, and the corner of another envelope in her mouth. Her eyebrows lowered when she saw the boys and Mrs. Knight in front of them.

First, she turned to the receptionist, opening her mouth ad dropping the envelope, catching it in her left hand. "I've told you before, you can call me Riley," she said patiently. She then turned back to the boys. "What are you blokes doing here?" she asked, her accent clearly ringing through her voice.

"Didn't Ronan tell you that we were coming by?" Logan asked, looking at his friends in confusion.

Riley took in a breath as she shifted her weight, balancing the large box on her hip. "I must have forgotten," she said simply. She tossed her hair over her shoulders. "No matter, we can just go now." She quickly turned on her heel. "Follow me."

James pushed Logan out of his way as he hurried to Riley's side. "Ronan says that you guys started to write some new songs," he said, matching her stride.

"Ah, not really," Riley walked over to the elevators and pressed the button to call it down. "Just got some melodies and stuff to listen to while we think about what we want our new album to be about." She shifted the box to both of her arms. "Especially since we're still waiting to hear how our last ones did."

"I'm sure you guys did fine," Kendall reassured her, standing on her other side.

"I'm sure it did too, Kendork," Riley replied. "Back home at least, but here, not so sure." She looked over at Mrs. Knight and then gave her an apologetic look. "I didn't see you there, how are you doing today, Mrs. Knight?"

'I'm fine, Riley, thanks," Mrs. Knight replied, giving her a nice smile.

Riley blinked. "You got my name right," she commented.

"She has a card in her pocket," Kendall said quickly. "And would you please stop calling me Kendork?"

"Would you rather, Hockey-Head?" Riley asked innocently. She looked over at Mrs. Knight, who's smiled widened and her eyes started to sparkle with laughter. She moved a hand up to her mouth as Kendall turned and gave his mother an incredulous look.

"You're just going to sit there and let her call me names? What kind of a mother are you?" He demanded.

"A good one, apparently," Carlos teased.

Kendall groaned, turning back to Riley. "Do you _have_ to call me that?" He asked in a pleading tone.

"Does it bother you?" Riley rolled her head to the side as the elevator doors dinged open. She stepped inside, holding her arm out so the doors wouldn't' close, and then picked the button labeled '3' after being sure everyone was inside.

"Yes!"

"Then yes."

Kendall smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Just watch, I'm going to give you a nickname that bugs you."

"I'd love to see you try."

Logan laughed, practically seeing the smoke coming out of Kendall's ears and nose. There were a lot of things about Kendall that people didn't know unless you got to know him; he was a bad liar/faker, he didn't like fine arts or ballet, and he obsessed over sour candy. But the one thing that made him Kendall was that he hated to lose and he hated to be challenged with something. And up until they met the Jacksons, Logan wasn't sure that he had ever seen Kendall so annoyed by one person. It was a welcome change; finally there was someone that could put him in his place.

"Don't laugh at me," Kendall declared, turning to Logan and shoving him on the arm hard enough to knock him into the side of the elevator.

"Sorry, it's hard not to when you have that stupid, stunned look on your face," Logan replied, reaching out and shoving him back. Kendall stumbled and was knocked into Carlos, who pushed Kendall back into Logan.

"Boys," Mrs. Knight warned, causing the three boys to immediately settle down. The elevator doors dinged open and the group left the elevator, following Riley into a conference room. Her siblings were already sitting in a few of the chairs, talking to each other. They looked up, confused, when Riley walked in, followed by Big Time Rush.

"What are you-"Patrick started to say.

"Long story," Riley interrupted as she sat down, pushing the box in front of Noah. "I think these are shoes," she said as the others entered the room and sat down as well.

In a flash, Noah had stood up, pulled a pocket knife out of his shorts, and started to stab at the tape that held the package closed. He closed the pocket knife and replaced it in his pocket before ripping open the box. He turned it to the side and studied it for a moment before nodding as he pulled out a small pair of Pumas. He handed them over to Sydney before giving Rhuben a pair of Punkrose shoes, Patrick a pair of Nikes, Riley a pair of Vans, and for himself grabbed a pair of Adidas.

James sighed longingly, fogging up the black table with his breath as he watched them. "That's the kind of stuff that we're going to get when we become famous," He said in a low voice. He then reached his hands out onto the table and groaned. "Why do things have to move so slowly for us?"

"Work even harder than you already do and things will move faster for you," Ronan said as he walked into the room. He sat down in a chair at the head of the table. He set down a folder before he pushed his chair in, clasping his hands together. "I'm sure you all are wondering why you're here today." He said pleasantly.

"Well, Mama Knight said that you guys wanted to go over some new rule with us," Carlos said as he sat up straight in his chair, giving Ronan his full attention. He couldn't keep a smile off of his face. Anything that had to do with their music career excited him. Even if he was told that he had to do more homework just to perform, he would do it.

"Right," Ronan nodded and reached over to the side, grabbing onto the folder and opening it. He slid a sheet of paper in front of him. "So, I've already told my kids these rules," he nodded over to the Jacksons. "But it'll be a good refresher for them as there may be some things that we can have a compromise on." He cleared his throat as he looked over the sheet of paper. "Alright, first things first; the rules that haven't changed. We, Gustavo, Kelly, Kacy and I," Ronan lifted his eyes and looked at Mrs. Knight, who nodded at him to continue. "Have agreed that keeping your grades up to perform is a rule that we want to keep. You have a curfew as well, to be sure that you stay healthy. No drinking or drugs." He lifted his gaze to the two bands this time. "Is that fine with you all?"

"Yeah, sounds good." Kendall spoke up as he nodded, speaking for everyone.

"Ok," Ronan made a check mark next to the first bullet on the sheet of paper. "We have also lifted the rule that you guys can't come to Blazing Phoenix Records whenever we're working," he smiled when he heard Kendall's, Logan's, Carlos's, and James' surprised sounds. "That goes for Rocque Records as well, both bands can visit each other's studios when they please, working or not."

He could tell that they were really excited for this rule change, as Robert wanted to keep the Jacksons from being distracted with them coming by. The Jacksons agreed with that rule, only because they didn't want the guys to know about them being abused, as Robert did it more when they were working on their music. Now that he was put in custody, it made sense that they were able to go over when they wanted.

"Only thing is," Ronan continued. "No outside visitors." He looked serious. "The only people that we have allowed to come over here, for now is you guys, Mrs. Knight, Gustavo, Kelly, Katie; because it would probably be when she needs to be watched, and Dak. Anyone else, you have to get approval through me." He insisted. "I know that this job is exciting, but you all still have to be able to be serious when you need to work."

"Sounds fair," Logan agreed.

He tried not to grimace; he could only imagine what would happen if any of their girlfriends had come over when they went to Blazing Phoenix Records or vice-versa. He could guarantee that there would be no work getting done, whether it being that they would spend too much time with their girlfriends or if it was because they would try harder just to impress them. It wouldn't work. They were guys, and it was in their nature to try and be the best and to outdo each other.

"If there's any special equipment that you need, get permission first, blah blah blah," Ronan turned the page over and then leaned back in his chair. "I'm sure that you will find this rule change interesting." He then paused for dramatic effect, smiling to himself.

He looked over at the Jacksons, Riley and Rhuben shook their heads, Patrick and Noah merely smiled, and Sydney looked like he could care less. Dating had no interest to him, but he did admit that he liked to be in the know with things like that, especially when it came to his brothers' and sisters' happiness. Ronan didn't mind, at that point, he didn't care about what Sydney thought as long as he didn't get stuck in relationship drama at his age. He knew that kids were getting into 'committed relationships' younger and younger and thought that Sydney was above them.

Ronan took a breath and turned back to the boys, catching Mrs. Knight's eye. She shook her head, a laugh tugging at her lips. Ronan smiled to himself before turning to the boys. "We have lifted the 'no dating between bands rule'," he said casually. "I was never a fan of the rule in the first place because it wasn't realistic. So that rule is no more, but," he held up a finger. "the change is that if there are any events that you guys have to go together to boost PR Riley and Rhuben will cycle through each one of the guys to be their date for the night." He quickly went on to clarify. "For example, one event they have to go to together Riley will 'go with' Kendall and Rhuben will 'go with' Logan. And then the next time Riley will 'go with' Logan and Rhuben will 'go with' James and then cycle from there."

"And the events where you all don't have to go together," Mrs. Knight spoke up. "Where it doesn't matter about PR or anything, you can go with whomever you want."

Carlos's lower jaw moved to the side as he looked over at Riley and Rhuben. He remembered when they were first getting to know each other; James had constantly asked the two of them if they had a boyfriend, getting on their nerves about it. Now Rhuben was, sort of, dating Dak for all he knew and Riley didn't seem interested in anyone. "Are they ok with this?" he asked, pointing at them.

"Yeah, it's fine with us," Rhuben shrugged as she leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. "For PR and because they're trying to capitalize on our rivalry and everything. It makes sense." She cracked her knuckles before examining her nails, looking bored. "Lots of people do it in the music industry to get their name out there."

"It's alright," James said with a charming smile. "You don't have to hide your excitement that you can date me, Beautiful," he said to her. "I'll treat you like the princess you are."

Rhuben smiled as she dropped her hands to her lap, shaking her head as she started to laugh lightly. "And I'll be sure to treat you like a prince, Handsome," she flirted back.

"Would that go to sitting with them at award shows and things too?" Patrick asked, raising a hand in the air, his other hand resting on his cheek. "What if I want to bring a date?"

"We can talk about it then," Ronan said dismissively. He then gave his friend a knowing look. "Not like I can't figure out whom you'd want to ask."

Patrick stuck out his tongue.

Ronan stuck his out in reply.

Mrs. Knight watched the exchange with a sense of relief washing over her.

She wasn't sure how they would be reacting to each other with the trip to the police station the week before. It was hard on her too, over and over again; they asked her what kind of things she had seen that could possibly help their case. She told them about the sleepover that they had when Patrick had helped Sydney when he was scared; she told them about the many times they had flinched whenever one of them moved quickly, about how quiet they could be. It stumped her though, when they asked how long she thought that the abuse had gone on as well as if she thought that Robert had been intimidating to her at all. He wasn't that bad, from what Kelly said, he was very charming around her, and she could vouch for that. Robert never gave her any problems that she could think of. But then there were the stories that the boys told her, that he would push them hard. Even Ronan told her some things like that, when Gustavo wasn't too busy hating Robert, he would say the same thing. But she couldn't even begin to guess how long they had been living through pain and terror that Robert had inflicted upon them.

It actually made her feel bad; she hadn't helped them at all. Part of her 'job' was that when she went out to LA she would watch over Logan, Carlos, and James, to keep them safe. She ended doing it to the Jacksons, without noticing it, when she had first met them, as it was her motherly instinct that told her that something was wrong with them. She didn't know it then, but she knew that something was wrong. If everything had been going on for them for a long time and she didn't know or do anything about it, she probably wouldn't be able to forgive herself. The same way the boys felt.

It was a horrible feeling.

But now that things were starting to get better, and the chance of Ronan adopting them was up in the air, she knew that she wouldn't have to worry about them for long.

"What's with the smile on your face, Mama Knight?" Sydney asked, clasping his hands together as he looked hard at her. He tilted his head to the side, his dimples appearing in his cheeks. "Did you just think about how much easier your Momager job should be now?"

Mrs. Knight hesitated, not sure how to respond. She couldn't tell them about Ronan wanting to adopt them, not until he told them first, at least.

"She's just thinking about the other thing that I have to tell you guys," Ronan quickly butted in. He looked over at Mrs. Knight, as if he knew what she was thinking, before turning back to the teenagers that were in front of him. "Blazing Phoenix and Rocque Records are throwing a party tonight, to celebrate your guys' success with releasing your CDs and everything, and you all are invited."

As Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James cheered, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney groaned, slouching in their seats. James was the one that asked them why it was that they weren't excited for it. "This is the kind of thing that normal people _live_ for. A party with the biggest names in the music industry and all of that food. It's going to be fun,"

"Yeah," Rhuben gave an overly-exaggerated head nod. "Sitting around with a bunch of old farts that try to talk to you about what kind of music is good." She made a face. "Clearly you guys have no idea how to have fun," She dead-panned, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You gotta throw your balls to the wall and let loose, you know?" Patrick added. He then turned to Ronan and pointed at him, his eyes narrowing. "And this is _not_ my idea of throwing my balls to the wall or letting loose."

"That's practically impossible," Riley reminded her brother, reaching up and smacking Patrick on the back of the head.

"Too bad, you're going," Ronan said shortly. Noah opened his mouth to protest, but Ronan held up a hand, cutting him off. "And don't even try to use the 'we have work' excuse; I already called them to ask for time off." He then gave them a pleading look. "And I know you don't like these kinds of parties or many parties in general, but please humor me on this one. This is really going to help you."

"The attire is casual-formal, there's going to be a lot of food," Mrs. Knight spoke up, crossing her legs as she leaned back in her seat. "There's going to be some press that's outside the venue where they will take some pictures and only ask you about your music and your future plans. At that point, if you have a date, they have to go straight inside so questions about your relationships don't get in the way." She looked at the ceiling as she thought about what else there was that needed to be said. "Umm, both bands will be sitting together with your guests, and you can bring whomever you want."

"The more the merrier," Ronan added.

"Mom, you knew that we were going to this party and you didn't say anything?" Kendall asked with an amused smile to his mother, who modestly shrugged in reply.

He wasn't annoyed at her, he was happy that they were finally going to their first party. After they couldn't go to Gustavo's party for them last time, he and the other boys vowed that they would somehow get to another one, and now it was happening.

"I'm your Momager," Mrs. Knight replied as if that explained everything. "I was the one that had to make sure your schedule was clear for it," she then winked at her son. "And it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you."

"This is going to be so cool!" Carlos cheered, punching the air with his fists. "Industry party, whoo!"

Ronan laughed, closing the folder that was on the table. Their energy was unbreakable. He could probably tell them that they were going to lose the Big Time Rush mobile and only be ushered around in a limo for the rest of their lives and find the positive side of it. (But the BTR Mobile was a nice car; he wouldn't think they would ever give it up, not even since they can't drive it, legally, yet).

"Well, that was all that I needed to talk to you about," Ronan said as he leaned back, crossing his legs. "Unless you all wanted to talk about your new album," he offered, looking over at the boys. "Have you started on it yet? Any ideas?"

"Well, all we know is that we don't really want to be seen as much of a pop band anymore," Carlos said slowly. His screwed up his features. "Does that make sense? We still want to do pop music, but we want to be-"

"Taken more seriously?" Patrick interrupted. He nodded when Carlos nodded. "No, we get it, that's one of the reasons why we switched from pop music to rock music. A lot more people paid attention to us as musicians then."

"Well, what you could think of is having less of a 'squeaky clean' image," Ronan suggested. "Try suggesting to Gustavo that you want some new clothes, try different kind of music style along with pop, or…I don't know, to try more rock things at your shows." He shrugged.

"Well, we have some time to think about it," Logan said. "Especially if we're still waiting to see what certification our first one gets, it just an idea."

"Yeah, well, don't tell Gustavo I gave you any advice," Ronan said, holding up a hand. "My ears stopped ringing from the last time he yelled at me, I don't need it again." He laughed, lowering his legs to the floor. "I'll see you guys later." He pointed over at Sydney. "Don't forget your dentist appointment."

"I won't," Sydney replied as he got up from his seat. He grabbed Riley's wrist and started to drag her to the door.

"I don't see why he even needs to go," Riley remarked as she allowed herself to be pulled by her brother, who was acting as her chauffer that day. "He's the one with the perfect teeth."

"And I plan on keeping them that way," Sydney replied.

"What are you guys planning on doing now?" Logan asked as he and his friends moved from their seats and left the conference room. "We have all day to hang out." He added.

"Can't," Rhuben grumbled, shoving her hands into her jeans pockets. "I have homework to do." She made a gagging motion. "Math _and_ History."

"I can help," Logan offered. "I mean, if you're going over the same things we are right now, then I can make it easier for you to understand." He gave her a sympathetic look, ignoring the nudge that James lightly pushed to his back. "I mean, you have to keep your grades up to perform, right?"

Rhuben looked at him for a moment before tilting her head back slightly. "That would actually be very helpful, Logie-Bear." She lowered her voice. "My math grade is sitting at a C+ at this point, and Ronan's not too happy." She looked at her watch. "Do you have time now?"

"I have nothing but time, Bella," Logan replied with a warm smile.

"Yes, because math and science are his girlfriend when Camille's not around," Carlos cracked, causing Kendall, James, Patrick, and Noah to burst out into hysterical laughter.

Logan made a face at them before holding an arm out for Rhuben to lead them down the hallway. Kendall, James, and Carlos followed Patrick and Noah as they wandered their way down to the lobby.

"Maybe Ronan has a point," James remarked. "Our music isn't really being taken seriously…and we have some young fans that really like how we look." He rubbed his chin. "But we have some older fans too, and I think that our next album should be catered more towards them."

"Well, everyone changes their image with each CD they put out," Patrick remarked. "We do it for all of ours." He then snapped his fingers loudly. "Maybe we should do a test." He said, as a slow smile slid onto his face.

"Dude, that's, like, the evilest smile I've ever seen," Carlos commented, looking at Patrick's face.

"Hm, that's what you think, mate," Noah snarked.

"Dude, I'm being serious," Patrick insisted. "Why not try out your new look tonight. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to make them take you seriously. And if you want to be rock stars, then you'll have to learn from the best." He crossed his arms over his chest as he smiled smugly at the boys.

"You're not good at being modest are you?" Kendall asked.

"Not in the slightest," Noah replied. He looked around the lobby for a moment before walking over to the receptionist's desk. He talked to the receptionist for a moment and then came back with something behind his back. "Alright," he turned to Kendall, Carlos, and James. "You said you wanted to be more like rock stars, right?" Noah pulled his hand out from behind his back, a pair of scissors in his hand. He opened and closed them a few times. "Well, all rock stars start with rocking haircuts." He then closed the scissors one more time and gave a half smile. "No pun intended."

* * *

><p>Gustavo glared at the older, graying man that stood across from him. He looked down at the papers that were in his hands. The contracts. The truth was staring him in the face. Griffin had been stealing money from them the whole time that they had been Big Time Rush. Gustavo was concerned about it at first, thinking that something was off, but then pushed it aside as he started to work with the dogs on their album. It wasn't until all of the money that he had thrown around to pay for them, had he started to worry. He looked at the money that they had brought in from the short American tour and thought something was wrong. He talked to Kelly, asking her to look over his numbers and she found the same thing.<p>

They were short on money.

No matter how many tickets they sold, no matter how many CDs they sold, no matter how much they made from appearances, they weren't getting as much as they could. It was the only reason that they had been holding back on giving the boys their paychecks was because of that reason.

Griffin had been stealing from them the entire time.

Now that Gustavo and Kelly had arranged a meeting with them, he had burst their bubble with the news that their contracts said that Griffin was getting more money than Gustavo and Kelly had originally stated. It was right there in the very small print. Of course with the one million dollars that Griffin had offered him to find the 'next big thing' he didn't care about the contracts at that point. He needed to find the fire. Now that they did, it was all starting to fall apart.

Gustavo was mainly mad at himself, because he didn't pay close attention to the contract to see if there were any hidden clauses.

Now it was biting him in the ass.

Gustavo lifted his eyes to Kelly. She looked more tired than he had ever seen her in his entire life. The last time he had seen her like that, it was after the two had spent days auditioning people that Gustavo could work with when he was out of town. At that time, the guys had destroyed his mansion, but still, he stuck by his dogs.

He was going to stick by them now, too.

"I'm going to sue your for all you're worth," Gustavo snarled.

Griffin looked up and slowly smiled. "If anything, I have the rights to sue _you_. You're not keeping up with your contract," he said.

He reached over and pulled open a desk drawer, pulling out a manila folder before tossing it haphazardly at Gustavo. He then stood up and straightened his tie as he slowly walked around his desk, eyes on Gustavo. Much like a lion would to its prey. Griffin moved his arms behind his back once he was standing across from Gustavo. The two looked at each other, each not saying a word, trying to stare the other down. Finally, Griffin quietly cleared his throat.

"I'll see you in court," he whispered, the menace in his tone not lost on Gustavo.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **After thinking about it for a while, I'm only going to be re-writing the first two stories for this one. Looking over it again, I noticed that _Here and Now _could be considered a standalone compared to the other two, as it had nothing to do with the whole story plot (abuse and friendship). So, that being said, some of the things that I'm sure people really enjoyed about the third story (Kiley's fight/break-up and getting back together, Racy, Lella saying they love each other) will be put in/re-written into other stories. I hope you guys aren't too upset about this decision.

Also, this part had been split up into two chapters because it would take WAY too long to do what I originally had planned for the whole thing. There's more of Lella friendship in the next chapter as well as more of Patrick, Noah, and Sydney.

The part with Gustavo and Griffin was done short on purpose, you'll see more of it soon.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	36. Rockstar PART 2

**.:Chapter Thirty–Six – Rockstar Part 2:.**

"_I lead two totally separate lives. There are times when I have to slip into rock star mode." ~Martin Gore_

* * *

><p>"Ok, when it comes to History, you don't really have to worry about dates," Logan said, flipping a page of the textbook that rested in his lap.<p>

He lifted his head to look at Rhuben, who was slumped in a chair across from him. Her legs were draped over the side of the chair, slowly swinging back and forth. She was looking down at her own history textbook but didn't seem to be focusing on it at all. Every slight movement from someone that walked around them caused her eyes to dart from the page to follow the movement.

Logan and Rhuben were sitting in the PalmWoods lobby, doing homework. After Logan offered to help her, he suggested that they go by Ronan's apartment to get her stuff so he could help her. Rhuben quickly shot down that idea, showing him that she had her backpack with her that had everything in it. Part of him was slightly suspicious that she just so happened to have it on her, when she hated doing homework of any kind and procrastinated when she could. Part of him thought that she didn't want him to go over to Ronan's apartment and it was possible, none of the guys had been there; Kendall had seen the outside of it, but they never went in. When the Jacksons first started to go over to the apartment on Fridays (which Ronan sometimes attended as well), Carlos suggested that every Friday they go back and forth from the apartment to their house to make it fair. He understood why they quickly shot that idea down, back then they didn't know about the Jacksons' abuse, so it made sense that they didn't go over.

But now, they hadn't even offered to have them over, not even once.

"If that were the case," Rhuben turned her gaze back down to her textbook. "Then why are history teachers so hot and bothered about it?"

Logan gave a half smile. "They're the ones that really care." He licked his lips. "Basically what you have to do, to get the points, even if you don't know the specific date, is if you explain everything you know about the event. Using Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How." He instructed. "If you cover all of those bases for an ID or for an Essay question, than you can definitely get all of the points and bring up your History grade."

"My History grade is fine," Rhuben closed her book with a loud 'thump'. "It's math that's the problem."

"You're being too hard on yourself, Bella," Logan reassured her. He leaned to the side and picked his backpack up off of the floor, starting to dig through it. "When you get what you're supposed to be doing, you really get it. It's just your confidence level is so low." He turned the backpack to the side and looked through another pocket. "Which is funny, because you have nothing _but_ confidence when you're on stage."

"That's because music helps me forget," Rhuben said, finally turning to look at him. Her blue eyes bored into his. Logan had to look away. "For all of us really, it's an escape. I can be whoever I want to be on stage, because I'm escaping into the music. Same for Noah, he's so quiet and shy when he's not performing, but when he's on stage; he's a completely different person." She moved her hands in a vague gesture, as if trying to think of an accurate way to explain it. "It's a release of our pent up emotions; anger, sadness, frustration, we put it all into our music."

Logan nodded. "That's how your performances are always so good," he said after a minute. "You leave everything on stage, so it doesn't bleed into your personal life."

Rhuben nodded.

"Wow," Logan shook his head, impressed. "That's really smart. I can't believe I never thought of that." He finally found what he was looking for and pulled it out of a small pocket of his backpack. He dropped one into his lap before tossing the other one to Rhuben. "Catch."

Rhuben held out a hand and grabbed the object out of the air. She turned it in her hand; her eyebrows lowering when she studied the wrapper of the Cotton Candy flavored Ring Pop. "A Ring Pop?" she repeated. Then her face cleared. "You used to give these to me and Riles all the time when we came over to your house."

"Mhm," Logan nodded. "Back in Texas." He smiled teasingly. "Actually, you guys stole them more than I gave them to you."

"You know the only reason we hung out with you was for your candy," Rhuben said, unwrapping the candy. Logan studied her face, it was completely serious, but he could tell that she was joking. He knew her that well. He liked to think he knew her that well.

"That's good to know," Logan replied, still kidding with her. "So what's keeping you guys working with us now? Did Gustavo guarantee candy in your contract?"

"And frequent use of his mansion when we want to," Rhuben said. She winced as she finally opened the candy, a sharp part of the plastic ring cutting her finger. "Son of a bitch," she muttered, before sticking her finger in her mouth.

Logan winced.

_Rhuben wiped at her face and then took a step closer to Logan, lowering her voice. "Listen, it's not that we don't want the help. It's that we can't __afford__ to have the help." Logan waited for her to continue. She looked away for a moment, closing her eyes before turning back to Logan. "Riles and I, we're sixteen. We're too old for someone to want to adopt us. Patrick and Noah are getting up there and Sydney is young, he'll definitely be taken. If anyone tells the police, we'll be split up. Riles and I will be lost in the system before we're thrown out on the streets, I don't know what'll happen to Pat and No. Syd had a really good chance of being adopted and taken away from us."_

_"So you were hiding it so you guys wouldn't be split up." Logan said. He let out a heavy sigh. "Rhu, something really bad will happen if you don't tell."_

_"We've made it this far," Rhuben shrugged. "Me and Riley take most of the hits so the boys are ok and so not a lot of the bruises are on them. No one else has to know. It'll come good." She took another step towards Logan. "And you can't tell." She said dangerously, her eyes narrowing into a fierce glare. "I swear to god, if you do, I'll __never__ speak to you again."_

_"Rhu-"_

_"We know what we're doing. Things can get pretty aggro sometimes, but Riley and I know what we're doing. Let us handle it." Rhuben paused, searching Logan's face. "Please."_

_"Fine," Logan finally agreed, knowing that he was going to regret it. "I won't tell anyone."_

"If Robert pushed you guys to work with Gustavo," Logan started slowly. "I'm guessing for money," he said. "And he's not around anymore, why are you guys still helping us?"

Rhuben thought for a moment.

"Let me put it this way," she stuck the ring pop into her mouth, moving it to her right cheek. "What do you guys respond most to when it comes to working with Gustavo?" She asked. Logan thought for a moment and couldn't think of anything. "Nothing," she said. "Because Gustavo just beats you guys down. Now, when we're working with you guys, we tell you what you're doing wrong, but we're also reinforcing you when you do something right and giving you criticism. Why?" She made a sarcastic scoffing sound. "To make you better." She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs. "You guys have a lot of potential and we just want to be sure it doesn't get wasted." She then removed the Ring Pop from her mouth and cleared her throat. "Of course, babies have potential for whatever they want to do too, but you're lucky because we decided to help you."

Logan was silent for a moment. He could see the defensive humor in what she was saying, but didn't want to call her out on it. He could tell that she didn't like to talk about her feelings, not many people did, but not many people would make jokes about it to cover up the vulnerability that they were doing their best to hide.

"Plus, I like to think that I'm making my parents proud by helping other people," Rhuben said quietly. So quietly that Logan almost didn't hear her.; he didn't think he was supposed to hear her "Even when I was refusing help."

"Rhu," Logan fiddled with his unwrapped candy. "When your parents died-"

"Hey," Patrick called as he, Noah, Kendall, Carlos, and James walked through the front door. Patrick had a big smile on his face as he hurried over to Logan and Rhuben. "Guys, check this out!"

Rhuben turned back to Logan, swinging her feet to the ground. "Dot, dot, dot?" she asked. Logan grinned and nodded, immediately getting the meaning. When they were younger, and both of them still lived in Texas, whenever there was a conversation that the two of them were having that they couldn't finish or didn't want anyone else to hear, they would say 'Dot, dot, dot' meaning that they would continue the conversation later. But it was just something that he and Rhuben did. Logan was glad that she remembered.

Patrick grabbed onto his sister's arm and turned her towards Kendall, James, and Carlos. "Wha-?" Rhuben's mouth dropped open and then closed once she got a good look at the boys' new haircut.

"You cut your hair," Logan stated.

"Really?" Carlos asked sarcastically. "We didn't know that." He shook his head. "Jeez, for someone so smart, you can be _so_ dumb." He laughed as Logan frowned.

"The guys said that they wanted to be taken more seriously with their music," Noah explained, walking over to his sister's side. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "So we thought that it would be a good idea to try it out for the party tonight."

Rhuben looked over at her brother. "You were bored, weren't you?" she questioned.

"When do we ever do this stuff when we're not bored?" Noah replied.

"Good point," Rhuben ruffled Noah's hair before turning back to the guys, tilting her head to the side, her face screwed up in thought.

"So, Beautiful, what do you think?" James asked, putting his hands up and running it through his now shorter and darkened hair.

Rhuben moved her hand from her mouth and waited for a second. "It's Rushtastic," she dead-panned. She studied Kendall and Carlos. "Really, you guys look good." She said after a moment. "But don't you think you should have asked someone to do it first?" She turned and gave a sharp look at Patrick and Noah.

Patrick snorted. "Since when do we ask before we do something?"

Rhuben rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Hey Beautiful," James remarked as he moved to her side. "You seem kind of down," he remarked. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Rhuben nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Just thinking about the party tonight." She looked over at the guys one more time. "Wondering what Gustavo is going to say about this. He probably couldn't fire us, but still, I'd rather _not_ be yelled at."

James smiled and leaned forward, putting a hand on Rhuben's shoulder, and gave her a kiss on the mouth. When he pulled away, he was grinning from ear to ear and she looked at him oddly.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Funny," James put a finger to his chin. "That's exactly what your sister said." He shook his head. "I wanted to make you feel better," James replied. He sounded proud of himself.

"And you thought that would do it?"

"She said that, too."

"Too?" Patrick repeated, an odd look coming over his face. "What do you mean, too?" He demanded, placing his hands on his hips. "You may be my friend, but that doesn't mean that you can go around kissing my sisters." He said in a low voice.

Kendall laughed. It was funny to him, knowing how close The Jacksons were, seeing Patrick get so overprotective of his older sisters. He could tell by looking at Noah, though he wasn't as vocal about it, that he wasn't so happy that James had kissed them either. The identical glares on their faces said it all. But it was nice to see, too. They were acting like normal siblings did, looking out for each other the best they could. He could tell that the boys just wanted to be sure that their sisters were ok, after years of them being taken care of.

"Anyway," James continued. "Do you have a date for the party tonight?"

"Riles the boys and I are goign together," Rhuben replied. "We never see the point of bringing dates to these sort of company parties. Too much hassle, it's not really worth it. The more laid-back ones are better." She turned away. "Besides, I don't want to have to deal with _those_ kind of questions with the interviewers before the party actually starts." James nodded.

"Hey," Sydney called as he and Riley walked into the lobby of the PalmWoods. "What's going on? What did I miss?"

"How are his teeth?" Rhuben asked, leaning down to give her baby brother a hug.

Riley smirked as she leaned over Sydney and pulled his lips open, revealing all of his pearly white teeth. "Perfect, of course," he said with an eye roll. "You'd think that if Julius's teeth are as messed up as they are, and that the four of us," she motioned to herself, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah. "Needed braces, Sydney would have something." She shook her head and then got a good look at the guys. "What the fu-"Sydney turned and gave her a sharp look, causing her to drop the end of her last word.

"What do you think?" Carlos asked eagerly.

"It's Rushtatstic," Riley snorted.

"That's what Rhu said," Kendall pointed out. "Man, I thought I would get used to twins sharing a brain thing, but that was weird."

"We spend too much time together," Riley said flippantly. She turned to Patrick and Noah. "Why do I get the feeling that you two have something to do with this?" Patrick and Noah gave her identical innocent smiles in reply.

"Don't you think that you should have asked Gustavo or Kelly or Ronan about this first?" Sydney asked, wrinkling his nose. "I mean, it's really affects marketing and your style and stuff like that. In the music industry, long hair is considered attractive, because it can cover parts of your face and make you look mysterious."

"Why do you think _we_ keep our hair long?" Noah shrugged and gave a modest smile.

"It's too late for that," Logan reminded all of them. "It's not like you can't just glue their hair back to their heads." He shook his head as he looked at the four of them. "You see, this is why we're always getting yelled at by Gustavo. Because none of you think about what you do before you do it."

"Well, life would be boring if you always listened to the rules," Patrick said. "Why do you think we break them?"

"Pat, don't encourage them," Sydney shook his head. He then looked at his watch. "Well, we have a while before the party starts," he looked at his brothers and sisters. "Maybe we should help them decide what to wear; their new haircuts may make it harder."

"I don't think we're going to need help getting dressed for a party," James snorted.

"Do you know what casual-formal is?" Noah asked. When he didn't get an answer in reply, he merely smiled, proving his point.

"Alright then, let's go," Kendall said, leading the way up to the apartment.

Once they all got inside, they were instructed to go to their closets and get some clothes that they thought would work for the party that night. The Jacksons got settled in the living room; Sydney picking up the remote and starting to flip through the channels, trying to find something to watch. They ignored the fighting and yelling that they heard coming from the boys' room, knowing that sometimes it wasn't worth it to even ask what they were arguing about. It usually was over something stupid. They only looked up when the door to the apartment burst open and Katie and Lizzie stormed inside.

"I'm just saying that if you're supposed to be my best friend, you can at least _act _like it!" Katie snapped.

"And _I'm_ just saying that I can't hang out with you every single second of every single day," Lizzie snapped back. She angrily shoved her blonde hair over her shoulders. "I mean, I have other stuff to do too. It's like you're obsessed with me or something."

Katie's eyes bugged open. "_Obsessed_?" she repeated. "Please, I'm not obsessed with _you_."

Lizzie noticed Katie's emphasis on the last word and her eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It shouldn't be that hard to figure out," Katie spat. She then looked innocent, putting her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry, I forgot. You're a blonde, maybe it'll be harder for you to figure out. Do you want me to speak slowly for you?"

"Don't bother!" Lizzie spun on her heel and stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind her. Katie turned on her heel and stomped to her room, slamming her door shut behind her as well.

"She really spit the dummy," Sydney remarked.

"Chucked a spaz," Riley agreed.

"What's all the yelling about?" Kendall asked as he and the guys walked out of their rooms, their arms filled with clothes. He looked over at Katie's closed bedroom door, looking concerned. "Is Katie ok?" He asked, walking over to the couch and draping his clothes over the back of it.

"She and Lizzie got into a fight," Sydney replied. He stopped Kendall as he turned to go check on her. "From personal experience, it's a good idea if you leave her alone for a while, just to be sure that she cools down a bit." Kendall shrugged before leaning over and ruffling Sydney's hair, causing the younger boy to smile.

"Now, what have you got?" Patrick asked, pushing his glasses up his nose and looking over the clothes that were presented to them. He picked up some of the stuff that they had laid out and looked over them. He shook his head a few times, tossing some things away, before splitting the others up into piles. "Ok, these," he motioned to the left pile. "Are too casual, and these," he motioned to the right pile. "Are too formal. But these," he pointed to the middle pile. "Are OK."

"I'm surprised you're not telling us what to wear, Landy," Logan commented as he picked up a shirt and held it over his chest, looking down to see what it looked like.

"Parties are fair game," she replied. "Everything else I have to help with." She peered at him. "Speaking of, Logie-Bear, don't you think you should cut your hair too?"

"No, I like my hair just fine, thanks," Logan replied smugly.

"He doesn't need it to be cut," Sydney remarked. "Maybe some gel and styling it up would work."

"I'll go see if there's any gel in the bathroom," Noah offered.

He got off of the couch and went over to the bathroom, slipping inside. He quickly scanned the bathroom, looking for some hair gel. There was nothing on the sink except for toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant was sitting on the side of the bathtub, and there was a loofah that was sitting in the tub. Other than that, the place was spotless. Noah crouched down and started to look through the cabinets, but found mostly cleaning supplies, razors, and some toilet paper. Standing up, Noah looked into the mirror and let out a cry as he stumbled back, hitting the towel rack and sliding to the floor.

"Son of a bitch," he whispered, his fear causing him to curse. Out of his siblings, besides Sydney, he was one of the ones that cursed the least.

Heart beating in his chest, Noah glanced up at the mirror from where he was sitting on the floor. He was at a bad angle; he couldn't see into the mirror. He couldn't see what he thought he saw. Blood was pounding in his ears and he was having a bit of trouble catching his breath. Finally, when he was sure that he wouldn't pass out, Noah slowly got to his feet and looked into the mirror again.

He frowned and his reflection did the same.

It was weird, just a few seconds before he could have sworn that he had seen his father's face in the mirror. He had been looking back at him in that harsh stare that only he could master. His lips had been in a thin line, but his grey eyes bored right into Noah's, giving him that sense of fear that he always felt when he saw Robert. That sense of uncertainty, when they weren't sure if he was going to be Robert, the guy that beat them, or Robert the nice guy.

"Noah, are you ok?" Noah flinched and looked up to see Carlos leaning in the doorway, looking down at his friend in concern. "I heard a sound...I wasn't sure if you hurt yourself…"

"I'm fine," Noah said, turning away from the mirror. "I just slipped on some water." He turned back to the mirror and opened the medicine cabinet, finding the hair gel. He closed the cabinet once more, being sure not to look directly into it, and followed Carlos back to their friends. "Here," he tossed the bottle to Patrick, who opened it and started to goop some into Logan's hair, despite Logan's protests.

"Are you ok?" Rhuben asked him, when he reached her side.

Noah nodded quietly.

"So, I was thinking, maybe we should get Gustavo a date for tonight," James remarked as everyone waited for Patrick to stop styling Logan's hair. "That way we can actually have some fun without him breathing down our backs."

"I feel sorry for the poor woman that you get to set up with him," Sydney said, starting to jump up and down over the couch. "I mean, why would we want to set her up with a potential axe murderer?"

"Why would Gustavo want to murder an axe?" Patrick asked, wrinkling his nose.

Sydney ignored him as he jumped high and moved over the couch, his bare feet landing on the floor with a thud. "Don't sweat it," he said to the guys. "These parties…Gustavo will be too busy dealing with everyone from the Record Company to worry about you guys."

"I hope so," Kendall said. He then leaned to the side and peered at Logan. "You look good, Logie," he commented. "The hair gel really suits you."

"Whatever," Logan commented as Patrick removed his hands from Logan's hair and went over to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. "I'm going to take it out as soon as tonight's over."

"Spoil sport," Carlos remarked, rolling his eyes.

Rhuben pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen for a moment before replacing it. "We gotta go," she said, sliding off of the couch. "We have a writing session that we have to get to. So we'll just see you guys at the party, I guess."

"Thanks for the help," Kendall said, looking around at the clothes that were strewn all over the place. "I think." He added, not exactly sure if that had indeed helped them other than making a mess in the apartment.

"No worries," Rhuben replied, holding up a hand. She stopped and walked over to Logan, motioning to her siblings that she would be there in a few minutes, before pulling him away. "Earlier," she started. "You were asking about my parents." She prompted him.

"Right," Logan hesitated. "I was just wondering…after they died how Robert heard about you guys."

Rhuben was silent for a long moment. If it wasn't for the fact that she had raised her hand to her chin, he would have thought that she was completely ignoring him. Finally, she lifted her head, a troubled expression on her face. "Don't know really," she replied. "He never talked about it. Our parents died in the house fire, we didn't have any living relatives that were well enough to take all of us, we were sent to the orphanage, next thing you know, there he was; saying that it was a sign considering our last names are, coincidentally, the same." Her face turned hard. "Our theory is that he could have heard us singing and wanted to capitalize on that. He's the only one that knows the reason why, and, frankly, I don't give a damn to ask."

"Wow," Logan breathed. "Thanks for trusting me to tell me that."

Rhuben nodded once. "You're welcome."

* * *

><p>"Wow, you really weren't kidding when you said that the party was going to be boring," Carlos commented as he drummed his fork and knife on the table in front of him.<p>

"Told you," Patrick sighed from his other side. "The ones that usually throw this kind of thing always make it so fancy, so everyone that's younger than eighty is bored to tears." He flipped his fedora in his hands and looked around, making a face at the orchestra that was playing, their music barely audible over the talking and laughter of the crowded room. "Even the music bores me to sleep."

"Yeah, well, I'm just glad that I didn't get stuck talking to people like the others," Carlos said, twisting to the side to look over his shoulder. Kendall, Logan, James, Riley, and Rhuben were spaced around the room, talking to some guests as they had been since dinner ended.

The guys had arrived with their dates (except James, who was dateless); Katie, and Mrs. Knight as soon as the party had begun and the place had already been packed. Mrs. Knight had been whisked off to sit at a table with Gustavo, Ronan, Kelly, and some other people from Rocque Records and Blazing Phoenix Records. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Katie, Jo, Camille, and Stephanie had been led to the table that the DarkElements were already sitting at. Dak, WayneWayne (whom Big Time Rush were surprised to see) and Lizzie were already there as well. Even with all of the black and white, fancy music, and bite-sized food that was being passed around, James was determined to have a good time. Especially after Sydney had explained that while there were usually older guests at these kinds of parties, it was good for marketing. It didn't take long for James to start passing out headshots and resumes. Dinner had been good; a two course meal of salad and steak and potatoes. The conversation at the table was kind of awkward at first, as Katie and Lizzie were still mad at each other and Big Time Rush, for the most part, were ignoring WayneWayne, but as the night went on, things started to get better.

After the dishes had been cleared away, people started to get up and mingle with each other. Gustavo had grabbed Kendall, Logan, and James to talk to some people, saying that they were more trusted to give good answers to questions than Carlos. But Carlos didn't mind, he would rather not talk to old people about what was going on in the record company. A small part of him, though, felt annoyed. He wasn't as careless as Gustavo made him out to be, he was getting better in school, (so he could perform) and he worked really hard when it came to dancing. He knew that Gustavo was just being careful, not giving Carlos much of a chance to defend himself, but still, part of that really bugged him. Not enough so that it put him in a bad mood for the rest of the night, but enough. Dak had left the table too, finding someone that he knew to talk to. Camille and WayneWayne were talking animatedly to each other, which Carlos was sure Logan wouldn't be happy about. Riley and Rhuben, as Noah had explained, where answering questions with Ronan as the two were the ones that had been in the band the longest and usually made the decisions for their band. Carlos had asked if the boys felt slighted by it, but they quickly convinced him that they were glad the attention and questions weren't on them. Katie and Lizzie were sitting at the table, joining in on conversation every now and then, but mostly ignored each other. Stephanie was sitting to Carlos's right, talking to him, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney. Jo had accompanied Kendall to talk to some people, and the two were standing arm in arm talking to an older man with a handlebar mustache.

"Uh-oh," Noah elbowed Patrick in the side as he pointed to the man with the handlebars. "Kendall found Mush-Mouth."

"Who?" Stephanie laughed, turning in her seat to look at the guy.

"That's a guy from Blazing Phoenix," Sydney explained. He was on his knees in his seat. Every now and then he would lean to the side to be sure that the others would be able to hear him over the music. "He's part of marketing, thing is, you don't want to get stopped by him."

Patrick gave a wicked smile. "He asks questions all the time, but no one can understand him because he mumbles so much."

"Like Gustavo, but in reverse," Stephanie commented, nudging Carlos on the arm and giving him a smile. Noah noticed the touch, frowning slightly as he looked away from her. "He yells and the other guy mumbles."

"Yeah, but Mush-Mouth isn't so bad, he knows what he's doing." Sydney said. "And he's really nice. He always has a smile on his face whenever he comes by." He stretched his arms over his head. When the bottom of his plaid shirt rode up, a hint of a dark bruise showed and he quickly pulled his shirt down.

Carlos looked around the table; no one else seemed to notice it. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he was already cared of where it could have come from. He drummed his hands on the table, wondering when the desert was going to be brought out, when he heard Patrick sigh loudly, tilting his head back towards the ceiling.

"Alright," he declared, standing up. "I'm done being bored," he turned to Carlos and Stephanie. "You want to help us with something?" He looked over at Katie and Lizzie, looking like he wanted to ask if they wanted to help, but thought better of it.

"Sure," Stephanie replied with a shrug as she and Carlos stood up as well. "What is it?"

"Follow me," Patrick waved an arm and he, Noah, Sydney, Carlos, and Stephanie walked away from their table and started to push their way through the middle of the room. Halfway there, Patrick nearly bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry Jett." He apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Jett Stetson replied in his loud voice. "Nothing can ruin my mood or my clothes tonight," he held out his arms and spun in a circle, showing off his all white suit. "What do you think? Best looking guy in the room, right?"

"Most handsome guy in the room," Sydney humored him.

"Oh right," Noah turned to his side. "Guys, this is Jett Stetson from New Town High, he's…" he paused. "Sort of a friend of ours." He then motioned to Carlos and Stephanie. "And these are our friends Carlos Garcia and Stephanie King. Carlos is from Big Time Rush."

"Right, that boy band," Jett agreed, causing Carlos to nod. "Your music is good. Nothing like a hit TV show, but good." He said.

Carlos's eyebrows lowered, feeling offended. "What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded. If he was able to wear his helmet that night, he would have head butted Jett in the stomach with it.

"Don't get him started," Patrick advised.

"You know," Noah said, turning to Jett. "We could use your help to be a distraction," he said and then leaned close to the older teenager and whispered something in his ear. "Can you do that?" He asked, leaning back.

"No problem," Jett puffed up his chest and walked away.

"What did you ask him to do?" Stephanie asked with a light laugh.

"I just said for him to keep Gustavo away from us before we can get the thing done," Noah replied with a light blush. "It shouldn't take long, but you never know with all of these people around here, popping up out of nowhere."

"Mhm," Stephanie nodded once. "And what is it that you've got planned?"

"You'll see," Sydney replied mysteriously. He looked around. "Alright, I've got the DJ stand; you guys need to find a way to convince the orchestra that they need to stop playing. And you two," he turned to Patrick and Noah. "Need to find some microphones."

Carlos laughed, pleased that he had something to do other than sit around and talk to people. "You guys really have that whole Rockstar mentality down, don't you?" He asked.

Sydney shrugged modestly. "We do live like a rock stars every now and then," he admitted. "But it's not always as great as it sounds."

Carlos nodded silently. Stephanie grabbed onto his arm and the two started to head over to the orchestra that was playing. It was still so hard for him to know that friends of theirs had gone through so much pain. It hadn't been long since they had been interrogated, but there were many times that he woke up in the middle of the night, having dreamt about being asked question after question that he slipped up and Robert was released free. He didn't want his friends to hurt anymore, but it was obvious that they weren't going to get better anytime soon.

"Carlos," Stephanie must have noticed the look on his face, for she gently rubbed his cheek. "Everything's going to be ok with them." She tried to reassure him.

"I know," Carlos agreed. "I just wish that we knew _now _that things were going to get better, not wait so long." He replied. "But who cares," he looped his arm through hers. "Right now we're at a party and we're going to have fun tonight."

"As soon as we get the orchestra to take a break," Stephanie reminded him.

"Right."

Carlos and Stephanie walked over to the orchestra and Carlos looked around for the conductor. He found him standing on a block in front of the band and took a deep breath before walking over to him. Carlos reached out and poked the man on the leg, causing him to lean down as he still conducted the instruments to keep being played.

"Excuse me," Carlos said over the music. "But Gustavo told me that you guys can take a break." He said.

The man shook his head. "Gustavo told me specifically that we can't stop playing unless we're told to by him." He tossed his head back, causing Carlos to follow his gaze. "Fujisaki is here tonight and Gustavo told us that this is the kind of music that needs to be played."

Carlos made a face. Fujisaki was the man from RCM CBT Global Net Sanyoid that basically funded all of Rocque Records. He was technically even the boss of Griffin, he was that powerful. And it wasn't uncommon to know of Fujisaki's eclectic tastes in music, movies, and commercials. It was possible that Fujisaki _did _want that kind of music played.

"But this is Carlos from Big Time Rush," Stephanie cut in. "Whom Fujisaki had hired himself to join Rocque Records and his RCM…company." Stephanie glanced over the name, it was hard to say it once, she was surprised anyone could say it more times and not get annoyed by it. "And he and the guys want to perform as a surprise…" Stephanie thought for a moment. "As a surprise 'thank you' for their band."

The conductor thought about it for a moment and then stopped the music on a good note. He turned to the musicians that looked at him expectantly, not seeming to notice the murmur that had gone around the room. From where he was standing, Carlos could see Gustavo stand up and try to get over to them, but Jett had gotten in his way and was talking to him about something. Ronan, on the other hand, continued to talk to whomever he was talking to, as if it didn't bother him at all.

Like he was expecting it.

"We're taking a break guys," The conductor said. "You're playing fine; now go get some food and rest for a while."

"I didn't think that would work," Stephanie admitted to Carlos.

"Me neither, but I'm glad it did," Carlos turned back around to look for Patrick, Noah, or Sydney. He spotted Sydney at the DJ table, a pair of headphones on his ears. Sydney caught his gaze and gave a thumbs up, which Carlos returned.

"Alright guys," Patrick said into a microphone as he started his way across the room, Noah by his side. "This is supposed to be a party and, frankly, I don't think it's much of a party if no one is dancing. So, I hope you all enjoy this." He nodded over at Sydney, placed a large record onto a turntable and started to play it.

Loud, throbbing, dance music started to pour out of the speakers that were set up and the floor of the room started to become crowded with dancing bodies.

"Whoa," Stephanie laughed, grabbing onto Carlos's hand. "Look at that." She started to tug on him. "Come on, let's dance." She could already see Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, Jo, Kendall, Camille (who was dragging Logan), and Lizzie dancing in the middle of the room.

Before Carlos knew it, he was stuck in the throngs of the moving bodies on the dance floor. He looked to his right and saw, to his mild surprise, Riley and Rhuben dancing close to James. Not grinding, but close enough. Of course James was sure to pay equal attention to the both of them.

Carlos couldn't help but laugh as he got lost in the music. He grinned when Patrick, Noah, ad Sydney leaned over to give him a high-five. _Rock stars or not, _he thought to himself. _There's never a dull moment with them around._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I really like the way that this story is going so far, since I realized that it would take a while for the trial to actually start. So pushing some things back to show other things I think is making this story work. The only thing I don't like is the Della thing, since I made it start to early. It worked with my original idea, but now that I've changed it, it doesn't work as much and I wish I could change it, from the start of it, but then I would leave a gaping hole in the plot of the story so that wouldn't work. So, at this point, I don't know what to do with it, since, like I said, it happened too early..

Speaking of, you'll see more of WayneWayne in the upcoming chapters. I realized that at this point Lizzie has a bigger part than the other two because she's Katie's best friend while Dak and WayneWayne typically are used only when relationships are more important to the story. It sucks a little, thinking of my original plan, but it works too, so I don't have to worry about juggling so many characters at once.

This chapter focused more on Carlos towards the end because you got to see his friendship with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney as well as part of the start to his problems. (Not sure if you caught it, but the end of the chapter was in reference to what Logan and Rhuben talked about earlier in the chapter). You'll see more of the adults in the next chapter and more of James as the story goes on. You'll see more of the girls too, but don't forget that this story is mostly about BTR and DE.

I didn't mean for my A/N to go on this long, but I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	37. Dirty Little Secret

**.:Chapter Thirty–Seven – Dirty Little Secret:.**

_"An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.__" – William Makepeace Thackery_

* * *

><p>"Gustavo, I think you should calm down," Mrs. Knight said as she watched him pace back and forth across his office. "You're acting a little irrational, saying that you're going to sue Griffin without some thought about it first."<p>

"Oh, I've been thinking about it," Gustavo snapped. "I've been thinking about it for _years_, I've just never had a reason to until now."

"Gustavo," Kelly held up her hands defensively. "You're just jumping to conclusion." She gave him a pleading look. "We only think that Griffin took money from us, we don't really know that for sure." She let out a huff of irritation when Gustavo waved her off. "Well, what are you going to tell the boys about their CD? That they suddenly can't do it? How are you going to tell them about this?"

"The same way I tell everyone else bad news when I get it," Gustavo shot back.

Kelly snorted. "You can't just call them and leave a message."

"Yes, I can," Gustavo snapped back, flopping down in his chair.

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk, glaring into space. He didn't want to admit it, but Kelly and Mrs. Knight were right, he was overreacting. It was just that Griffin had duped him and made a fool of him so many times that he didn't want to miss the opportunity to finally do something about it.

Kelly sighed, running a hand over her face. She had left her apartment early that morning to go jogging, like she usually did, with her dog. Halfway through, she had gotten at text from Gustavo, saying that she needed to get to the Record Company. It was supposed to be her day off; she was going to go for a run, play with her dog, and then go into San Francisco to visit her sister and to have some girl time. Usually they lamented over the fact that Kelly still didn't have a boyfriend, but this time they were going to talk about anything but that and her job. But now here she was, projecting herself to more of Gustavo's (she would never say this to his face unless it was in a dire circumstance) bullshit.

_"I'm going to sue your for all you're worth," Gustavo snarled._

_Griffin looked up and slowly smiled. "If anything, I have the rights to sue you. You're not keeping up with your contract," he said._

_He reached over and pulled open a desk drawer, pulling out a manila folder before tossing it haphazardly at Gustavo. He then stood up and straightened his tie as he slowly walked around his desk, eyes on Gustavo. Much like a lion would to its prey. Griffin moved his arms behind his back once he was standing across from Gustavo. The two looked at each other, each not saying a word, trying to stare the other down. Finally, Griffin quietly cleared his throat._

_"I'll see you in court," he whispered, the menace in his tone not lost on Gustavo._

Kelly shuddered. She had never heard Gustavo so angry before.

"Ronan," Mrs. Knight turned to Ronan, who was sitting in a seat next to her, legs crossed, a hand up to his face. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

He gave her a look. "You think I could say anything that Gustavo would actually listen to?" He sat up straight. "Do you really think that I could convince him _not_ to sue Griffin?"

"Yes!" Mrs. Knight and Kelly cried at the same time Gustavo shouted, "NO!"

"He couldn't even convince me that the Dogs cutting their hair was a good idea!" Gustavo snarled. "In fact, I still have to yell at them for that," he added to himself as an afterthought.

"C'mon," Kelly continued. "You two are best friends-"

"Ha!" Gustavo and Ronan snorted.

"He'll listen to you," Kelly continued.

"Well," Ronan thought for a moment before turning to Gustavo. "If Ii were you, dude, I would take a couple of days or so to think on it. You claimed that you were going to sue him in the heat of the moment. Your emotions were high, think about taking some time to figure out if this is what you really want."

"There, now was that so hard?" Kelly asked him. She turned back to Gustavo, waiting for his answer.

Gustavo looked at the ceiling for a moment before taking out his phone and dialing a number. When the person on the other end answered, Gustavo spoke quickly. "Yeah, Dog, tell the other Dogs that we're going to hold off on working on that new album for a while. Yeah, stuff came up. I'll let you know when we can start again." He hung up the phone and turned to Kelly with a triumphant look. "There, now was that so hard?" he mocked her.

Kelly shook her head. "I just think that you're making a mistake,"

"Me too," Mrs. Knight agreed. "You're really going to hurt the boys."

"Mrs. Knight, you haven't been in the business long enough to know that, that's business." Gustavo said, leaning back in his seat. Mrs. Knight looked over at Kelly for help, but she let out a defeated sigh. He was right, it was business. CDs and music careers got pushed back all the time because of things like this. She wished it didn't happen, but it did.

Everyone's attention was turned to Ronan when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered, putting it up to his ear. "Hello? Yes, this is Ronan McGuire." He looked at his watch, his eyebrows lowering. "Right now? What's this about?" His face hardened. "Oh really? We can be there as soon as I can."

He hung up with a sharp press of him thumb into the 'END' button.

"Who was that?" Kelly asked.

"Officer Monahan at the police station," Ronan replied grimly. "Apparently Robert wants to talk to us."

* * *

><p>"So, I'm sure you'd like to know why you all are here," Robert said as he turned from the blind-covered window. His gray eyes scanned the room to look at his children, and then over to Ronan, the man that had been taking care of him since he had gone to jail. "Now," he gave a smile. "There's no need to be afraid of me here, we're just talking."<p>

"They wouldn't have to be afraid if you didn't hurt them so badly," Ronan remarked.

"You call it hurt, I call it discipline," Robert dismissed it with a wave of his hand. He turned to Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney. "I just wanted to be sure that you guys were the best. A little push here and there, a little incentive so you al could get to the top and-"

"Just get to the point, Robert," Ronan interrupted.

Robert nodded.

After Ronan had gotten the phone call from the police station, that they were releasing Robert from custody, Ronan knew that there was something wrong. He could hear it deep in the underlying tones of the officer's voice. When he asked what was going on, the officer had said that it would be a good idea if they and the Jacksons got to the station so they could sort everything out. When Ronan relayed the conversation to Mrs. Knight and his parents, Mrs. Knight immediately declared that she was going to with them. He was so worried about what was going on, that Ronan didn't even think to disagree with it. But he did ask Kelly to make sure that no media outlets got a hold of the meeting and started to spread more news and rumors, to which she heartedly agreed. He also had to bribe Gustavo to stay at Rocque Records and not go to the police station with them, knowing that he would just scream at Gustavo, threaten a fight, and make it worse.

He would _love_ to see it happen, but they didn't need any aggravation with the case at the delicate situation that it was currently in. He then called Riley and Rhuben and told them to have them all meet at the police station.

When he arrived, they were all sitting outside the station, talking to each other. Ronan could tell that Riley and Rhuben were just trying to keep their brothers' minds off of what could potentially happen. The case could have been dropped, there was the possibility of not enough evidence, or Robert could have smooth-talked his way out of it. There were all of those reasons to keep them preoccupied, but he could tell that they were just as scared as he was. They didn't greet him enthusiastically like they usually did, Patrick was cracking his knuckles like crazy, Rhuben kept rubbing or scratching her nose, Noah would always look down at his feet, Sydney kept humming a odd tune, and Riley was flipping open and close the top to a cigarette lighter.

The signs were there.

Ronan gave them as big a smile as he could muster, trying to get them to calm down. They went into the police station and Mrs. Knight was instructed to stay in the lobby. Ronan and the Jacksons followed the officer to a back room where Robert was waiting for them. Along the way, the officer explained that they couldn't keep Robert in custody any more, though they were going to keep surveillance of him for a while. The news didn't sit with Ronan well, it was almost a death sentence there; they were going to go to a trial over it.

But still, why did he want to talk?

They had entered the room, noticing a blonde man hovering by the doorway, and Officer Monahan standing in the corner of the room, his hands at his sides, resting by a set of handcuffs.

"Well, I'll just cut to the chase here," Robert rubbed the back of his neck. "Seems to me, that we're letting this case go to a trial," he said. Ronan tried to ignore the whimpering sound that Sydney made. "But it can all go away, if you would all just admit that you were just trying to get some attention."

"Excuse me?" Ronan blurted.

"I mean, yes, I could be a bit of a disciplinarian," Robert shrugged. "But not every parent teaches their kids what to do, what not to do, and how to live their dreams without a little push here and there."

"Are you saying that the bruises and cuts and burns that I've found on these kids sitting behind me, was just because they wanted some attention?" Ronan asked, his eyes narrowing. He shook his head, taking a quick breath. "Robert, let's be honest here, you never were that nice of a guy-"

"I can be a bi intimidating, yes," Robert swiftly interrupted. "But I'm not a bad guy. There are many times that we have had fun together," he looked over at the Jacksons, who looked back at him, quietly. "Am I right? Those times I took you to the amusement parks or to the movies. Plus, I've been managing your career this whole time."

Patrick winced, closing his eyes.

"So you owe me a little."

"What are you getting at Robert?" Ronan asked wearily.

Robert smiled. "All of this can be dropped with just a simple signature on a few forms. No one will have to go to court, we won't have to use a lot of money, and we can all go back to our normal lives." He chuckled. "As normal as they can be, right?" He cleared his throat. "If you have any other problems, you can bring it up with my lawyer," Robert motioned to the side, to the man that had been hovering in the doorway. As the man stepped forward, his eyes on Ronan, Robert slipped out of the door and out of sight.

"That's me, Kevin Knight" the man held his hand out. "I'm going to be representing Robert Jackson in the court case."

"Wait," Rona ignored Kevin's outstretched hand. If he noticed that the man looked similar to Kendall, as the Jacksons seemed to, he didn't acknowledge it. "What do you mean? This is officially going to a trial?"

"That's right," Kevin put his hand back on his suitcase handle. "My client is suing you for defamation."

"Defamation?!" Ronan repeated.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Patrick cried. Ronan shushed him with a sharp look, but the expression of intense dislike was still on Patrick's face.

"It's all right here," Kevin opened his briefcase and pulled out a stack of paper. He handed it over to Ronan, who barely glanced at it, tucking t under his arm. "The defamation, what he wants out of all of this, we may be able to negotiate, but I want you all to have some time to read over it first." He closed the suitcase again and smiled, his green eyes flashing. "Have a good day."

He started to walk out of the room.

"By the way," Riley spoke up, grabbing Kevin's attention. She regarded him coolly, her fingers flipping the top of a cigarette lighter open and closed rapidly. "How's your son?"

Kevin looked at her for a moment and then shook his head. He then gave her a funny smile. "I'm sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone else," he said politely. "I don't have a son."

'Not even a daughter?" Rhuben added, her eyes narrowing. "You know," she pretended to rub her chin in thought. "It's funny, I'm _sure_ that Katie looks _just _like him." She turned back to Kevin. "In fact, I'm sure that they have the same eyes."

"No," Riley shook her head. "Her eyes look like her mother's." She slowly tilted her head to the side. "His eyes look exactly like Kendall's. Face-shape too," she smirked. "He must have been the one to give him such large-ass eyebrows."

Patrick, Noah, and Sydney snickered as Kevin's hand flew up to his eyebrows. He scowled and looked over at Ronan, who merely shrugged back at him. The two men stared hard at each other. It was obvious that Ronan wasn't going to do anything about the twin girls taunting him. In fact, he seemed sort of proud. Kevin's scowl deepened as he looked at the five kids once more and they smiled sweetly back at him.

"You've got to learn to control your kids, man," he said as he grabbed onto the doorknob and wrenched it open with one hard pull.

"And you have to own up to the responsibility of yours," Ronan shot back.

He watched as Kevin headed towards the front of the police station. There was no point in trying to warn Mrs. Knight about it now; she couldn't miss him on the way out. Ronan sighed as he turned back to the Jacksons. Sensing that he wanted to talk about something, they waited patiently. Ronan licked his lips nervously.

"There's, something else that you guys need to know," he said slowly.

"You might as well come right out with it," Noah remarked, clasping his hands together. He let out a bitter laugh. "I don't think that there can be any worse news than what we just got."

"Listen," Ronan crossed his arms over his chest. "If this case turns out the way we want it to go…Robert will lose custody of you all," he studied their faces. He knew that's what scared them the most and what scared them out of telling their abuse in the first place. That they could go back into the foster system and get split up or that they could be put with someone else that was as mean and nasty as Robert. "But instead of you all being put back into the system, there's another option that we could look at." He took a deep breath. "I want to adopt you guys."

Riley blinked, closing the lighter with a sharp flick of her wrist.

Rhuben let out a breath, turning away from him.

Patrick made a strange noise in this throat.

Noah's eyes widened.

Sydney's eyebrows lowered in confusion, his right cheek twitching.

There was a considerable amount of silence. Ronan didn't expect them to go leaping into his open arms with screams and cheers of joy that would be so extremely out of character for them. They had just been hit with a bomb shell, one of the bigger ones they had gotten in their lives. His timing may have been off, way off, but he wanted them to know what was really going on.

"Well?" he asked. "What do you think?"

"What's for dinner?" Patrick's voice cracked.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hope you guys like it ;) You'll see more of Gustavo in the next chapter since his part was short, it was done on purpose.

Cheers,

-Riles


	38. Happy Birthday

**.:Chapter Thirty–Eight – Happy Birthday:.**

_"The way I see it, you should live everyday like it's your birthday.__" – Paris Hilton_

* * *

><p>"Ok, Ronan's in his office, we can talk now." Noah walked away from Ronan's closed office door and back over to the couch. Patrick and Rhuben were sitting on the couch; Riley and Sydney were sitting on the floor. Noah pulled off the baseball cap that he was wearing, shook out his hair, replaced the hat, and then climbed onto the couch, his feet in Patrick's lap and his head in Rhuben's lap. "Not that there's much to talk about."<p>

"I mean, we all want to be adopted by Ronan, right?" Riley asked, brushing her lock of red hair out of her face.

"Yeah," Sydney nodded, resting his chin in his hands and his elbows on his knees. "And we wouldn't have to talk about this if _Patrick_ didn't just ask what was for dinner." He threw his brother a sharp glare.

Patrick frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Sorry, I was a bit shocked." He threw his hands in the air. "I mean, first we see that bloke that we never thought that we'd see again, then Ronan drops that bombshell on us. I didn't know what to say."

"It's not all his fault," Riley came to Patrick's defense. "None of us said anything about it either."

"Yeah," Noah said softly (at least to him, softer than usual). "He didn't say much when we got back either."

"So, we all want to be adopted by Ronan," Rhuben said with an absentminded nod, resting her hands on Noah's chest. "We knew that since we practically met him, yeah? That's not really the problem." She let out a sigh, clenching her hands into fists. "I think we're all afraid of things going badly if he does. Since that's what we're used to."

"Makes sense," Sydney commented. "Defensive attitude, don't want things to go wrong so we won't let them get to that point." He gave a half smile. "We did the same thing with the guys and things didn't turn out so badly." He pointed out.

"He has a point," Patrick admitted. He then rolled his eyes. "Then again, he always does." Sydney smiled proudly, causing Patrick to stick out his tone.

The Jacksons were silent for a long moment. It wasn't an easy thing to talk about. They hadn't been that happy since their parents died and Robert ended up as their foster parent. They lived in nothing but fear, not sure if they did something that would set him off or if he was just in a bad mood. The constant visits from social services didn't help much either. It just caused them even more stress. They then took that stress out on everyone around them as they were growing up. The bands that they worked with, the people that tried to become friends with them, and then there was Big Time Rush. They were the only ones that continued to try and be friends with the, despite how hard they tried to keep them away. It wasn't even for the reasons that they thought, that the Jacksons didn't want to be friends with them was far beyond the truth. They just wanted to try and keep their friends from getting hurt, as Robert would try to find a way to hurt those around them, so they stayed focused on their music and being sure to keep Big Time Rush safe.

But Ronan was the only one that managed to get through that. Sure, they weren't fond of him when they first signed with his record company and he became their music producer in the process. It only took a bit of encouragement and positivity from him to win over Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, but Riley and Rhuben hated him at first. They were sure that he was going to end up like Robert, acting like he was nice and then turning on them. They were also afraid that he would ruin the kind of music that they wanted to make. But after a short while, a couple of months, they had warmed up to him; he quickly became their best friend, someone they could talk to about their problems, he was always nice to them, and he brought them gifts on gift-giving holidays, and he never forget any of their birthdays. Robert, on the other hand, he made an effort at times, but it seemed that he was too preoccupied with work and pushing them to be better. He didn't hit them much at first, but as they got bigger and the pressure mounted, it became a daily thing.

But Ronan was there to make them forget about it, even if for a little while.

"I wish Mum and Dad were here," Sydney said, breaking the silence.

Riley and Rhuben exchanged a look. They knew that it was hard on Sydney, as he was only one year old when they died; he didn't remember a lot about them, and at times they would find him crying because he was upset that he was the only one out of them that didn't get to know them. Riley and Rhuben made sure to answer all of his questions about him and to give him as many pictures of them as possible, but it didn't always work. They just hoped that this time wasn't one of the times that he was inconsolable.

"Uh, Little Man," Noah said gently, turning his head to look at them. "If they were here, we wouldn't be in this predicament."

"Oh, I know," Sydney nodded. He looked at his siblings and gave a half smile. "I just meant that if they were here, they'd help us make up our minds."

"Well," Riley thought for a moment. "Dad always did say that if you wanted something very badly and were torn on it, to listen to your heart before you listened to your mind."

"What did Mum say to that?" Sydney asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That he was a dreamer," Rhuben replied with a half smile. "Dad was more of the free-spirit type, and Mum was the more realistic one." She held up a finger. "Though they were both supportive whenever we needed help."

Patrick suddenly shifted his head to the side so fast, that there was an audible crack. His eyes darted around for a moment, and then his shoulders slumped as he turned back to his siblings. They knew what he saw.

"Where was he?" Rhuben asked, flipping her hair over her shoulders.

"Over there," Patrick pointed vaguely over his shoulder. He leaned forward and rubbed his forehead, giving a smile, though it wasn't a smile of happiness rather than of annoyance. "God, why is this happening to us?"

"Maybe we're guilty of something," Noah suggested.

"Of what?" Riley screeched.

Patrick immediately put his fingers in his ears. "Ouch, geez, Riles, you went supersonic there."

"_Anyway_," Sydney said loudly, getting his siblings' attention with the one word. "So, I think we already know what we want to do." He looked over at each of his siblings and they all nodded in reply. "Yay!" He jumped to his feet, his eyes shining with excitement. "Let's go tell him, now!" He hurried over to Ronan's office, his brothers and sisters following him. Sydney knocked on the closed door and gently opened it, giving enough space so that his head could fit through. "Ronan?" He asked.

Ronan turned around in his office chair to look at him. His eyes were red, bloodshot, and he had bags under his eyes. When he saw Sydney in the door, he quickly wiped at his eyes and sniffed a little before clearing his throat. "Yeah, what's up?" He asked.

"Can we talk to you for a minute?" Sydney pushed the door open wider before hesitantly walking inside. He looked over his shoulders and his brothers and sisters shuffled across the officer over to his desk.

"Yeah," Ronan leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "What's going on?"

"Ronan, are your eyes red?" Patrick asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Uh," Ronan ran both hands over his face again. "It's just allergies," he said, his voice cracking at the end.

"Ronan," Riley slowly shook her head. "You don't have allergies." She twisted her hands together; they knew that he had been crying. They could tell from the way he wouldn't look at them, from the way he was sitting. He had called them perceptive before, as they could see whenever he was stressed, no matter how well he hid it. "Listen, we…wanted to apologize for what happened earlier."

"No need to apologize," Ronan shrugged.

"Yes," Rhuben insisted. "There is a reason. Ronan, we know that we hurt your feelings. We're sorry for that; you just shocked us, yeah?" She looked at her siblings again. "But, uh," she looked at her feet.

"What?" Ronan sat up, concerned. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No," Noah shook his head. "Nothing's wrong." He gave a small smile. "We just wanted to tell you…we want you to adopt us." He finally said.

Ronan stared at them for a second. He blinked for a few moments, as if he didn't hear them, and then a smile slid onto his face. "You really want me to?" He asked. The Jacksons nodded like bobble-heads in reply, causing his smile to widen. "You seriously want me to? Even if I had to, like, ground you for whatever reason."

Rhuben placed her hands on her hips. "You told us before that you don't believe in groundings." She reminded him.

"Right," Ronan looked annoyed at himself for a second. He then turned back to them with a serious expression on his face. He got up and walked around to the other side of his desk, leaning against it as he crossed his arms and legs. "I just want to be sure that you really want this. "He said quietly. "Because the thought of him…still having custody of you guys or getting lost in the system or whatever…that thought just kills me."

"That's not going to happen," Riley said confidently. She reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder. "Because we have you now." She grinned over at her brothers and sister, who all grinned back. "And you're stuck with us."

"Do I have time to change my mind?" Ronan joked.

"Not a chance." Patrick laughed.

"This is going to be a long process to go through," Ronan warned them. "We still have the trial to go through and then if that works in our favor, having to prove to social services that you're fit to stay with me and then getting the adoption papers and signatures from here and Australia…it'll take a lot of work."

"We work hard as it is," Sydney acknowledged. "I don't think that a bit more hard work is going to kill us."

"Awesome," Ronan's smile nearly split his face. "I'll be sure to let Linda know first thing in the morning." His face twisted to one of surprise when all five of them let out a whoop of a cheer and crushed him into a hug. He thought back to the conversation that he had had with Mrs. Knight.

_"If it helps," she waited until she was sure that she had Ronan's attention. "I think that you would be a great father to them," Mrs. Knight said casually._

_"What makes you say that?" Ronan asked. He looked skeptical._

_"Because for as long as I have known you, you've always referred to them as 'my kids'," Mrs. Knight smiled._

Now he could finally, officially, call them his kids.

* * *

><p>Mrs. Knight hoped that she would be able to keep a smile on her face all day. <em>It's Katie's birthday, you shouldn't let your shock of seeing your husband ruin her day. <em>She turned from the stove and went over o the refrigerator and opened the door to look inside. The birthday cake that she had made was sitting on the middle shelf, looking back at her. It was perfect; no one had touched it since it had been made, just as she wanted.

Mrs. Knight couldn't help but think about Kevin when she saw him in the police station. She had been sitting in the lobby of the police station, waiting for Ronan and the Jacksons to come back from talking to Robert. She had a bad feeling in her gut; through she couldn't explain it very well. She had originally thought that it was because of them seeing Robert again, knowing that it would bring back so many bad memories, but it was still there, even though she knew that she wouldn't see him. It wasn't until Kevin had started to walk through the lobby and stop short when he saw her, that she noticed.

When she looked up and saw him, her mouth dropped open before she could stop herself. She then stood up and walked over to him, no sense in acting as if she didn't see him when she clearly did.

"Hello Kevin," she greeted him with a polite nod.

"Hey Kacy," he returned with a nod of his own. He shifted his briefcase to his other hand. "How are you?"

'I'm doing well," she replied. She lightly rubbed her arm. "How are you doing? How's…the cases and everything?" She made a face; she didn't know why she was even trying to make small-talk. Ever since they became separated, not officially divorced, things had always been awkward between them. She was still angry that he wasn't paying child support, but she wasn't going to push him into it as well. She was way past caring at that point, she would rather him see how happy they were without him to hurt him worse.

"Everything's going fine," Kevin replied. His green eyes flashed a little. "In fact, I've just got assigned to a new case."

"Really?" Mrs. Knight's eyebrows rose.

"Yes," Kevin tightened his grip on his briefcase. "As it happens, it seems that the person that I'm representing knows some friends of yours." He stared hard at her. Mrs. Knight tilted her head in confusion. "Does a Robert James mean anything to you?"

Mrs. Knight immediately blanched. She knew what he was getting at. At first, he was representing Robert as a part of his job, now he was going to represent him and try to use it as a means to get back at her. She could see it in his face; she hadn't been married to him for years and not know what he was thinking when he was thinking it. She just never thought that he would be so serious about it.

But he was serious, at least as Ronan had told her that Robert was going to try and reverse the case against his kids to try and make it that they were lying to try and defame him. All of it was just giving her a headache and she didn't want it to spill into the party that they were going to have for Katie at the beach that day. But she wasn't sure how long she could keep it a secret.

"Mom?"

"Oh," Mrs. Knight let out a gasp and whirled around to see Kendall standing behind her, a gym bag slung over his shoulders. "Gosh, you scared me."

"Sorry," Kendall apologized. He tilted his head to the side as he looked behind her, noticing that the refrigerator door was still open. "Are you looking for something or were you having a hot flash or something?" He smiled as Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes and closed the refrigerator door. His eyebrows lowered in concern when she closed the door harder than she intended. "Mom, what's going on?"

"Ok," Mrs. Knight walked over to her son. "But you can't tell Katie about this; I don't want her getting upset since it's her birthday."

"Promise," Kendall said quickly. "What is it? You look worried."

Mrs. Knight took a breath, staring at her feet. She had to tell him, but she knew that things weren't going to be good if she did. "Alright," she lifted her head and looked directly at Kendall. "The case is going to a trial," Kendall slowly nodded. "And the man that's going to be representing Robert during the case…his lawyer is going to be your father."

Kendall's face immediately went hard with anger. It was hard for him not to let every single thought of his dad bother him, since he was still so pissed that he had left their mother and his family. He didn't even know why he left, he didn't care, and he just hated the man with every fiber of his being. Even a brief mention of his father from someone that didn't know his situation would set him off.

"Now, Kendall, I want you to try and stay as positive as you can today," Mrs. Knight instructed. "It _is _your sister's birthday, remember?"

"I know," Kendall said shortly. "It just…ah hockey pucks, it freaking sucks, mom. I mean, he probably doesn't even get that what he's doing is going to hurt my friends. And…what does he want to help him for anyway?"

"Unfortunately, when it comes to things like this, people have to be represented to try and plead their case," Mrs. Knight reached out and lovingly ran her fingers through Kendall's hair and over his cheek. "But everything's not that bad, Ronan told me that he's planning on adopting the Jacksons." She smiled when Kendall's eyes lit up at the news.

"Oh, that's awesome!" He cried. "Seriously, that's so cool."

"But you can't tell them yet," Mrs. Knight said quickly, holding up a hand. "I don't know if he's brought it up to them yet and I don't want you to ruin the surprise." She gave him a funny smile. "You better not tell the other guys either; they probably won't be able to keep it a secret."

"Carlos wouldn't for sure," Kendall agreed. He looked at his watch. "Well, we have to get going to the gym soon; we're having a practice early today since the party is going to make us miss most of the afternoon." He studied his mom. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

"With the news of your father?" Mrs. Knight asked. "Yeah, I'll be fine, it's not that I didn't expect something that-"

"No," Kendall smiled. "I mean, with Katie's birthday. You always get really weepy when it comes to our birthdays. You know what with your kids growing up and all."

Mrs. Knight kissed her son on the forehead. "I'll be fine," she said. "Go get some work done."

* * *

><p>"Ok," Rhuben rubbed the back of her neck. "That wasn't bad at all," she said, her eyes scanning Big Time Rush as they went to get some towels and water. She turned back to her brothers and sisters. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's still something that's missing here."<p>

The Jacksons and Dak had agreed to come in and help the guys with their dance practice early that afternoon before they went to Katie's beach birthday party later that day at the beach. They had been working on mastering some of the dances to the songs that they had done with their first CD. That's what Gustavo had instructed them to do anyway; he said that he wasn't going to be in to watch them. He had been in such a bad mood since he had told BTR that they were taking a break with their music that Kelly though it would be best if he didn't come in. The boys were bummed about them taking a break on CD #2 but at the same time they knew that it was probably a good idea, so they could focus on their weaknesses for a while.

They knew that Gustavo was really stressed, since he still hadn't screamed at them for their haircuts at that point. But it was only a matter of time.

"It's not just you," Dak commented, crossing his legs at the ankles. "I noticed it too whenever I was helping them when you guys were gone." He scratched the side of his neck. "But they're doing everything that we've ever mentioned."

"Yeah, I mean, Carlos hasn't thrown any microphones at someone because of his loose hand grip, so that's a plus," Patrick remarked, giving a double thumbs up. He laughed a little as the guys came over to sit with them as well. "No need to freak out guys," he said when he noticed their anxious looks. "We're just talking…we're not criticizing."

"But you're still not completely satisfied," Logan remarked, looking at Rhuben. "I can tell," he insisted when she sucked her lips into her mouth, looking back at him. "You've been so into dancing since we were in Texas," he gave a half smile, reaching out to hit her on the arm. She quickly moved her arm away, her eyes squeezing shut for a brief moment. He waited for her to relax before continuing. "You would always fun over to show me some dance move you came up with."

"I remember," Rhuben remarked with an eye-roll.

"So do I," Riley commented, rubbing the side of her jaw. "I got kicked in the face with her flying foot when she was trying to do a butterfly twist."

"It's not her fault your big head got in the way," Patrick commented. Riley reached out with both of her hands and shoved Patrick to the floor, causing Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Dak to burst out into loud laughter. Rhuben, Noah, Sydney, and Riley laughed quietly as Patrick put himself back up into his normal position.

"Anyway, we were saying that you guys were doing a good job," Dak leaned back against the mirror behind him. "But there's still something that you guys are missing." He shrugged. "In between something that I've taught you or something that they've been helping you with, something's not there."

"God forbid," Logan muttered, resting his chin in his hand.

"I'm sure that we'll get it," Carlos said breezily. He was probably used to the criticism at this point, as Gustavo did nothing but scream and yell at them whenever they did something wrong. At least they were getting something out of it.

"I'm sure that you'll get it too," Sydney agreed with a nod. "But that's not the problem," he twisted his mouth to the side. "The problem is how long it's going to take to get there."

Noah nodded. "And if you get 'there' when we need you to or not." He added. He let out a short sigh. "It's no big, yeah, but thinking ahead it could be a problem." He shook his hair out of his face. "Anyway," he clasped his hands together. "We should be getting ready for Katie's party, yeah?" His shoulders slumped when he noticed Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James merely staring at him. "Am I being too quiet?" He blushed, looking at his hands.

"No, it's not that," Kendall shook his head. "It's just…that's the loudest that we've heard you speak since we met you." He gave a warm smile, causing Noah to avoid his gaze in embarrassment. He really wanted to ask them if Ronan had talked to them about being adopted, but they weren't saying anything and he didn't want to bring it up without their permission. "Right, party. It starts at two, so we have to get going soon. Uh, we have a cake, Mom made it a couple of days go, we have food, we have music, and we have things to play with on the beach."

"Did everyone get a gift?" James asked, tilting his head to look hard at Carlos. "I don't plan on having anyone tack their name onto mine again this year."

"You try running out of money after playing arcade games to try and beat the high-score on Dirt Dash," Carlos said with a pout. "It's not that easy." He then stuck out his tongue. "Besides, me and Stephanie got a really good gift for her." He missed Noah's shoulders slumping and his face fall.

Everyone turned to the door as it opened and WayneWayne walked inside. He had a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, when he noticed Riley he quickly pulled them off and sat them on top of his head. He was also wearing a light gray t-shirt and a pair of swim trunks, flip-flops on his feet. He immediately noticed the tension in the room.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," The Jacksons and Dak replied at various times.

WayneWayne turned to Dak, holding onto a pair of car keys. "I got Lizzie from her dance class, she's in the truck." He explained. Dak smiled and nodded his thanks. He knew what was going on with him and Big Time Rush; he just figured that by then things would have blown over. But he was definitely wrong.

"What's _he_ doing here?' Carlos jutted out his chin.

"Oh," Dak looked over at WayneWayne and sucked in a breath before turning back to the guys. He studied their faces, noticing a glare on each and every one of them. "I invited him to the party," he said quickly. "I mean, Mrs. Knight said anyone could come and she doesn't seem to have a problem with him-"

"Yeah, but _we _do." James snapped.

WayneWayne let out a heavy sigh. "Dude, I apologized for this already," he said patiently. "I'm truly, deeply sorry for what I did to you guys. But you have to think of it this way; it's like when you came out here. You were willing to do anything to get a shot from Gustavo." He gave a shy shrug. "That's how I felt."

"Unlike you, we wouldn't resort to harsh tactics and ridicule to get our way," Kendall said, his eyes narrowing.

WayneWayne rolled his eyes, holding his hands up in an 'I tried' sort of way. He then shoved his hands into his swim trunks pockets. He might as well give up this time, if he couldn't get them to change their minds, no point in forcing it. He was fine being civil to them, they weren't really his friends anyway, no matter how badly (though he wouldn't say it out loud) he wanted them to be.

"Uh, we should get going," Dak changed the subject. He pointed over his shoulder. "Lizzie is waiting out in the car so we can get to the beach before the traffic gets bad."

"It's LA, it's never good, DZ," Riley pointed out.

"Good point," he replied before turning to Rhuben. "Actually, I was hoping that you could talk to Lizzie before we go about the fight that she's having with Katie. I know that she wants to make up with her, but I can't really talk her into it." When she made a face, looking like she was thinking about it, Dak put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a charming smile. "Please? I promise I'll make it up to you. With Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, just like always."

With a twinge of annoyance, Logan spoke before he could stop himself. "Don't you think that you should just deal with the problem yourself?" he asked. "I mean, she's your sister."

Dak's eyebrows rose as he turned to Logan. He had let him take small jabs and digs at him every now and then since he had signed the contract with Gustavo to work with Big Time Rush. He wasn't going to take it anymore. "Oh, you mean, like how you needed _seven _people to help you with your problem when you band was starting out?"

Logan's upper lip twitched.

"Enough!" Sydney cried loudly. "Ok," he held up his hands defensively. "We get it, you guys aren't that happy to see each other. But at this point, I'm tired of caring."

"And we're tired of being silently judged when we say that we can't hang out or work with you guys because we're hanging out with Dak or WayneWayne," Patrick added. "Do you know how hard it is to give you guys equal attention?" He started to count off on his fingers. "We work on our own music, we work with you guys, we try to hang out with Katie so she doesn't feel left out, we hang out with Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, and we hang out with Dak, WayneWayne, and Lizzie."

Riley pointed over to WayneWayne. "We've gotten to know him and he's not that bad of a guy," she looked him up and down. "A little flaky, but whatever," WayneWayne rolled his eyes. "You don't have to be best friends, hell, you don't even have to like each other, but _stop _with the passive-aggressive crap."

"At least when we're around," Rhuben concluded her arms over her chest. "And if you don't like it, Tough Kiwi."

"Fine," Dak, WayneWayne, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all muttered.

"And I'll talk to Lizzie right now," Rhuben said to Dak and turned on her heel to leave the room. Not before catching Logan's eye. She looked hard at him, her eyes narrowing a big before she shook her head and left the room. She had never known Logan to act like that around anyone, even if he wasn't a big fan of theirs. It was so new to her, something she definitely didn't expect to come from him.

Logan lowered his gaze to the feet as she left the room.

Rhuben walked out of Rocque Records and over to Dak's black truck. She went over to the passenger side of the car, seeing Lizzie sitting inside, and stood up on the runner, resting her elbows against the area where the window would usually be. "Hey Lil' Bit, what's up?"

"Hey Rhu," Lizzie replied with a small smile. "How are you?"

"Fine," Rhuben replied. She took over Lizzie's attire and then looked at her feet. "So you just came from dance class?" She asked.

"Yeah," Lizzie nodded. "It's been taking up so much of my time, lately."

Rhuben's eyebrows raised and a figurative light bulb went off in her head. She shook her head, not believing that she hadn't noticed it before. "Liz is that why you and Katie have been fighting?" she asked the blonde girl. "Because you've been spending so much time doing dance classes that you haven't been able to spend as much time with her."

"Yeah," Lizzie replied after a moment. Shame moved across her face. "But we've been having so many recitals and stuff and I've always felt bad that I've had to miss something," she turned her green eyes to Rhuben's blue ones. "And then she got so mad at me and we started to yell at each other and…yeah." She huffed, sliding down in her seat. "I'm not good friends with girls. That's why I hang around Dak or Patrick and Noah so much."

"And you think Katie is?" Rhuben snorted. "From what Kendall's told us, she usually only hangs around them." She reached out and lightly shook Lizzie's shoulder. "You guys have a lot in common, Little Zevon, but there's something that you don't know that I had to learn really fast." Lizzie looked at her curiously. "Dancing may be the most important thing in your life, but you can't make it the _only_ thing in your life."

Lizzie nodded.

"I've got to go," Rhuben lightly hit the side of the truck. "But I'll see you at the party, yeah?"

"Yeah," Lizzie smiled. "Thanks Rhu."

"No worries, kid." Rhuben replied.

* * *

><p>"Mom, why are we going to the beach?" Katie asked, sitting in the passenger seat of Mrs. Knight's rental car. "I thought that we were going to go to the mall." She shifted the beach bag that was in between them. "At least, that's what you told me," she gave her mother an accusing glance. "So you could buy me whatever I wanted for my birthday."<p>

"Oh, we can still do that," Mrs. Knight replied with a wave of her hand, her eyes still on the road. She tried to keep a large smile from sliding onto her face. "It wouldn't be your birthday if I didn't max out at least _one_ credit card on things that you want."

Katie giggled to herself.

"Mom," She said after a moment. "Have you noticed anything going on with Kendall?" She twisted her hands in her lap, messing with the light purple towel that she had folded across her lap. When her mother made a sound that let her know that she didn't know what her daughter was talking about, Katie couldn't help but blurt it out. "He hasn't really been paying attention to me! I mean, I've been fighting with Lizzie and he hasn't seemed to notice. And…and…he doesn't sing to me anymore and-"

"Katie," Mrs. Knight said gently. "It's not that Kendall doesn't care. It's that he's so busy with his band that he's having a bit of trouble prioritizing everything. Between school, his work at Rocque Records, training, and going on tour, I'm surprised he finds any time to sleep."

"I guess," Katie muttered in reply.

"But he's the one that you should be thank for today," Mrs. Knight continued. "He suggested that I take you to the beach, so…" she reached out and ran her hand over Katie's cheek. "Don't let things get you down, honey, he'll come around. It's your birthday…smile."

She put her hand down and started to tickle Katie's sides, causing her to laugh and try to squirm away, a smile coming to her face. "Hey, that wasn't fair."

Mrs. Knight smiled and laughed.

There was another twenty minutes in their drive. When Mrs. Knight got to the beach, she pulled into the nearest parking spot and turned off the car. Mrs. Knight and Katie got out of the car and started to unload their bags from the back. Once everything was cleared from the car, Katie hurried over to the edge of the parking lot and looked down at the beach.

The crystal clear, dark blue water cascaded onto the sand in large waves, sending sea foam up to the beach. Even from where she stood, she could feel the spray from the waves as it hit the sand. The salty sear air wafted around her as she tilted her head back to look at the cloudless sky. The sun was shining and the sky was a deep cerulean and that just made her feel even more excited.

"Oh mom, this is going to be so-"

"SURPRISE! Happy Birthday, Katie!"

Katie gasped in shocked and whirled around, her mouth dropped open. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Dak, WayneWayne, Lizzie, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, her mother, Ronan, and Katie were all standing behind her with presents in their hands. Even her mother was carrying a cake box in her hands. She had seen it in the backseat of the car when she had gotten in, but when she asked her mother about it, she said that it was a present and not to open it.

"Happy Birthday, Katie." Jo repeated, stepping forward to give her boyfriend's sister a hug. "The big 1-4, congratulations."

"Thanks, Jo." Katie smiled as she gave her a hug in return. Everyone else surged around her to give her a hug. Only Lizzie stood off to the side, not sure what to do or say. Katie didn't blame her, as far as she knew, they were still fighting. She would like to have her best friend back, but she wasn't sure if it was possible at that point.

"You guys did all of this?" Katie asked as James took her arm and pointed her over towards the area of the beach that had been set up with balloons and decorations as well as a small fire-pit, which looked like it would be used later that day.

"Yep," James replied with a proud smile. "The fire pit was my idea." He added.

"It was my idea for the decorations and everything and Carlos helped me put everything up," Logan added with a smile.

"And I suggested that we come to the beach," Kendall agreed. "I mean, I know that you were feeling a bit down lately and I thought that nothing would cheer you up more than getting out of the PalmWoods for a while." He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug.

_And I thought he didn't care, _Katie thought to herself with a little bit of guilt as she turned and threw her arms around Kendall's waist in a hug. Kendall gave her a hug in reply, lifting her off of her feet. "Ok, ok," she lightly hit Kendall's arm, telling him to put her down. Once her feet were back on the ground, she turned to everyone with a big smile on her face. "Let's go down to the beach."

"Woohooo!" Carlos screamed, grabbing onto Stephanie's hand and hurrying out onto the sand.

"Hey be careful," Kelly called as everyone went after them, albeit a lot slower than Carlos and Stephanie. "You don't want Gustavo to hear about one of you guys breaking a leg." She reached over and elbowed Ronan in the side, causing him to laugh. "Then he'll take it out on me."

"Not unless he finds a way to fault me in it," Ronan replied.

"Kendall," Jo called as soon as she spread her towel out on the ground and taken off her shirt and shorts to reveal her light pink bikini. She held her hand out towards her boyfriend. "Let's go take a walk," she said with a bright smile.

"Alright," Kendall brushed sand off of his towel before standing up straight. He started to walk over to her, but a girl that was running by suddenly seemed to trip when she was passing Kendall. She tipped forward and Kendall immediately moved to grab her before she hit the ground. "Wow, are you ok?" He asked, steadying her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Kendall," she replied with a giggle and a bright smile.

"Oh, you're a fan?"

"Well, she's definitely a fan of yours," Camille joked. She elbowed Stephanie in the side and the two burst out into hysterical laughter. Confused, Kendall looked over at the others and noticed that they were either smirking or holding their hands over their faces, trying not to laugh out loud. Even Katie was giggling to herself.

Kendall turned back to Jo and noticed that her sunny demeanor had changed and she now had her arms crossed over her chest and she was glaring at her boyfriend. Kendall then looked down and his face turned red when he noticed that as the girl fell she grabbed onto Kendall to keep herself steady and had managed to grab a hold of his butt.

"It's not what it looks like," Kendall said quickly, pushing the girl to his feet.

"Trust me on this, Kendall," Ronan spoke up from where he, Mrs. Knight, and Kelly were setting up a table full of food. "There's no way that you're going to be able to explain yourself out of this one." He let out a cry of pain when Mrs. Knight and Kelly had reached over to smack him on the arms. "Ow!"

"Jo, really, it's not what it looks like," Kendall said as he followed Jo, who had turned on her heel and started to walk away. He stopped for a moment and then turned to Riley. "Do me a favor?" he asked quickly.

"Depends on what it is, Hockey-Head," Riley replied, placing her hands on her hips.

"Talk to Katie?" He asked. "I think she's still fighting with Lizzie and I want her to have a happy birthday, you know?" Riley held his gave for a moment and then nodded before Kendall raced to catch up with Jo. Riley then turned and walked over to Katie.

Katie noticed her coming and gave her a wide smile, although there was uncertainty in her eyes. "I…don't know if I should give you a hug or not," Katie said after a minute. "You know…to thank you guys for coming and stuff. I don't know if it'll set you off."

Riley gave a half smile. "You're usually fine if we hug you first, or if you don't move too fast." She then reached out and mussed Katie's hair. "And it was no problem, we were glad to be able to come; it's not someone's birthday every day, yeah?" Her face then grew a little serious. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"Oh," Katie looked back at Riley, her eyebrows twitching. "Well, I can probably guess," she said with massive amounts of attitude. "Kendall wanted you to talk to me about Lizzie, right? I can take care of that myself, thanks."

"Ay," Riley's eyes narrowed. "You want to check that attitude you're copping with me?"

Katie looked at her feet. "Sorry," she muttered. "I'm just…annoyed with the whole thing and I didn't even think that Kendall cared." She pouted a little. "I don't' even get why we're fighting, it just sort of happened."

"Yeah, that happens a lot when it comes to girls that fight," Riley remarked, the hard look on her face disappearing. "Most of the time it stems from nothing, but if you're fighting for this long, then it's something." She studied Katie. "I'm guessing that you've never had a really close girl friend before, have you?"

"No," Katie admitted.

"Neither has Lizzie," Riley replied. "And dancing, for her, kind of filled that void, so she has a habit of making it more important than anything else. Trust me, I know; whenever I go to bake things with her, it's usually what she talks about."

"You bake?" Katie asked, her eyes widening.

"Not a lot of people know that," Riley admitted. "But yeah, I do. And since Lizzie gets kind of lonely with only Dak to talk to, she dances and stuff with Rhu and I bake with her." She waved a hand. "When she's not having gout with my brothers at least. But now that you're around, she's been a lot livelier."

Katie looked skeptical. "I don't think that's possible, she's always so…perky."

"Yeah, that's just Lizzie," Riley agreed. "I know that you want to make up with her though, I can tell that you miss her."

"Please, I don't miss her." Katie scoffed, looking away from Riley.

"Yeah, you do," Riley insisted. "So go talk to her, or else there's going to be really weird tension around and that's the last thing that anyone would want for their birthday." Riley looked away as Sydney called for her to play soccer with her, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, James, Carlos, Stephanie, Logan, and Camille. Dak, WayneWayne, and Lizzie were throwing a football back and forth. "I'll see you later."

Katie nodded and watched as Riley trotted off to go play with them. She then turned and watched as Dak threw Lizzie the football and she missed it, causing the ball to hit the ground. She laughed a little as Dak and Lizzie started to argue back and forth, each trying to determine whose fault it as that she missed; Dak's for throwing it too hard or Lizzie's for not even trying. WayneWayne stood off to the side, trying to get them to stop, but eventually gave up, laughing at them as well.

Katie slowly walked over to them. "Uh, Lizzie?" she called, walking over to them. "Can we talk?"

Lizzie, who had been scooping the football up off of the ground, nodded before throwing the ball over to WayneWayne, hitting him in the chest, and walking over to Katie. The two girls stood apart from each other, both looking around, not sure what to say. They continued to shuffle their feet and looked around the beach at their friends, wanting to see who would break first.

"I'm sorry," Lizzie finally blurted. "I shouldn't have pushed you aside like that, just for some of my dance classes." She shook her head, deeply sincere. "I shouldn't have called you obsessed."

"I shouldn't have made fun of you for your hair color," Katie agreed. "And I shouldn't have pressured you like that." She kicked at the sand. "I don't really know how to be friends with a girl-"

"Me neither," Lizzie interrupted.

"Cool," Katie smiled and nodded. She then shifted her eyes to the side. "We're not….going to hug or anything are we?" She asked, clearly uncomfortable.

"Oh," Lizzie waved a hand. "I don't think we're there yet," She said, causing both girls to giggle together. "Ok, let me just say that having your birthday party on the beach was a _great _idea." She gushed, looking around. "I didn't know that James, Carlos, and Logan were so buff."

"God, you're such a girl," Katie rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, you can't tell me that you haven't been staring at my brother since we got here," Lizzie replied, slapping Katie on the arm. "I know when girls like my brother, and you've got a thing for him, _and _Patrick and Noah _and_ Julius."

"Do not," Katie scowled.

"Fine, you don't, whatever," Lizzie raised her hands. She smiled warmly at Katie. "You know, that's what I like about you." She said after a moment. Katie looked confused. "You're such a tomboy, you're not afraid to speak your mind. You can hang out with the guys and you have a lot of street smarts. I wish I was more like you."

"Really?" Katie gave a startled laugh. "You're girly _and _can hang out with the guys. It's not fair, really." She put her arm around Lizzie's shoulders (or at least tried to as Lizzie was taller than her) and smirked. "I guess that's why we make a great team."

"Oh yea," Lizzie raised a hand and the two high-fived. "Ok," she winked at Katie. "Watch this," She turned back to James, Carlos, and Logan. "Hey, can we play too?" She batted her eyelashes as she walked over to the ground with Katie behind her. "We promise we won't cramp your style."

"Sure," Carlos grinned and stopped the soccer ball with his foot, backing up to widen out the circle that they had. They weren't playing an actual game of soccer, just kicking the ball back and forth so everyone got a chance to kick. "The more the merrier."

"Does that mean that we have to ask them to play too?" Logan asked under his breath, nodding over to Dak and WayneWayne, who continued to throw the football back and forth to each other, talking and laughing about something.

"Wally's such a nice guy Logan," Camille said, her lower lip sticking out. "Try talking to him, for me. You guys have more in common than you think."

"Really?" Carlos looked a little interested. "Like what?"

"He plays hockey," Riley spoke up, trapping the ball with the side of her foot and brought it up to juggle on her knee with a few quick flicks of her foot. "Not as much as you guys do, but he still plays."

"And he likes movies," Patrick agreed. "A lot of the same ones that you guys do."

"And sports," Rhuben added with an eye roll. "I don't know what it is with guys and sports, but you can talk about that." She snapped her fingers. "Oh!" She turned to Stephanie. "And he likes to make movies, so that's good too." Stephanie's eyes lit up at the mere mention of it. It was her life to work on films and eventually make a blockbuster, anything that could help her get there she was willing to try.

"He's not bad at all," Camille added, nodding enthusiastically along with their words of encouragement. "Please, just try."

Riley passed the ball to James and he grabbed it, picking it up. He studied the ball for a moment before turning over to Dak and WayneWayne. He lightly stuck his tongue at the top of his mouth and then gave a shrill whistle. The two guys looked over and James held up the ball. "Do you guys want to play too?" He asked.

WayneWayne looked surprised and then turned to Dak. Dak thought for a moment and then shrugged. "Why not?" he asked. "I haven't played soccer in a while." He tossed the football aside and started to walk over. WayneWayne reached up and pulled his sunglasses over his face before following him. The group widened even more and they started to pass the ball back and forth around the circle.

"So," Lizzie started slowly. Katie gave her a look and Lizzie winked back at her before turning to Patrick and Noah. "How do you guys date, being so big and all?" She shrugged as she was passed the ball. "Being on the road all the time?"

"We don't." Patrick replied simply.

"You don't?" James asked in disbelief. "Are you crazy?!"

"Not now anyway," Patrick replied. "It's hard to figure out who likes you for your and who likes you because you're famous. It's easy to fall into the trap of being used." He looked over at Riley and Rhuben, who had a silent conversation, before nodding a little. "I've seen my sisters go through that, unfortunately, and it sucks. I don't want that to happen to them again or to anyone else."

"But it's not that it's that bad," Noah continued. "I mean, we get to hang out with our best friends 24/7." His lips curled up into a small smile. "In fact, I like to think that we were a key factor into making our sisters tomboys." He said with a laugh.

"Not that that's a bad thing," Dak remarked, getting passed the ball.

"Depends on who you ask," WayneWayne then said, teasing evident to his tone. He then looked embarrassed after he said it, as if he wasn't sure if he was allowed to make fun of anyone. But he then relaxed when no one said anything about it.

"What about you?" James asked the two of them. "How do you guys date in the industry?"

"I'm working on it," Dak replied vaguely, his eyes narrowing as he tried to keep the sun out of them.

"Not very well," WayneWayne admitted after a second. "I've only had one girlfriend, things were fine, but then it fizzled out." He merely shrugged. "But, whatever, we're young; we have a lot of time for that sort of thing."

"Whatever Dude," James grinned. "More for me."

Katie smiled and shook her head as she watched the ball go back and forth before it came to her. That was something that she hoped she didn't get too wrapped up into when it came to being a teenager; relationships. She had seen Kendall go through a few before he met Jo and they never ended well, Most of the girls broke up with him and while he acted like he was fine, for some of them, he was depressed about it. Of course hockey was the only thing that made him feel better. But with Jo, she could say that he was happy. _Though they look more like brother and sister than me and Kendall do._ Katie smirked to herself and passed the ball to Camille.

"Guys," Mrs. Knight called them over. "Time to get something to eat."

"Yes!" Katie cheered, punching the air with her fists before starting to walk over. Lizzie matched her stride, hooking her arm through Katie's.

"May I give you some advice, Logie?"

Katie turned around to see Riley and Logan walking together, Logan looking a little annoyed. Riley thought for a moment. "People grow up, they change, and so do friendships. But that doesn't mean that your relationship with that person gets any less special, it just means that you can make it that much better."

Katie turned back to the front and went over to the table to get some food.

* * *

><p>The party went on smoothly and everybody had a good time. Kendall and Jo had come back from their walk all smiles once again, and that made Katie even happier. They swam in the ocean, danced to the music that played out of a boom box, ate a bunch of cake and junk food, and even got a large game of soccer going with Mrs. Knight, Ronan, and Kelly joining in. She was really happy when she got her presents; Camille, Jo, and Stephanie (and in Stephanie's case, Carlos as well) had gotten her hand bags and shoes, Logan got her gift cards to her favorite stores; James got her some cosmetics (prompting a discussion as to where he got the stuff). Sydney had got her a journal that needed her voice to open it, Riley got her a new mp3 player, Rhuben got her a new jewelry box, Patrick and Noah had given her a necklace (and when they gave her a kiss on the cheek, they quickly explained that it was something that people did back in Australia, though not many of the others believed them), Dak and Lizzie got her some new shirts, WayneWayne gave her a digital camera (though he did admit it was his old one), Kelly gave her a Backstreet Boys gold album autographed by the band (which was from her and Gustavo), Ronan got her a digital photo album, and Kendall got her a permanent backstage pass to any and all BTR shows as well as a collage of pictures of him, her, and their mother, as well as his old jean jacket (as she had been stealing it from his closet for years)..<p>

The party was winding down and everyone was starting to clean up some of the trash that they had left lying around. Riley had noticed Kendall standing out by the water's edge and watched as she slowly sat down. She grabbed two Gatorade bottles and walked over to him.

"So I bet that you're happy that your guys' popularity is starting to go up," Riley commented, getting his attention. She handed him a Gatorade bottle before taking a sip of her own. "That was your first fan that practically jumped you."

"She didn't jump me," Kendall protested, an embarrassed smile sliding on his face before he took a sip.

"Jo doesn't seem to think so," Riley pointed out. "The rest of us girls, either," she added. "I mean, that girl had such a tight grip on your ass that I'm surprised that it didn't leave any fingernail prints." She pointed at Kendall with her Gatorade bottle. "Dude, you're totally blushing," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, it's kind of embarrassing," Kendall rand a hand through his hair.

"Better get used to it, Hockey-Head," Riley remarked. She spun her bottle in her hands. "Anyway, that's not why I wanted to talk to you. You know about Ronan's wanting to adopt us, don't you?" She asked. Kendall opened his mouth, trying to find a way to figure out how to reply and she waved a hand. "I could see it in your face," she said, as if reading his mind.

"Why didn't you say anything then?" Kendall asked.

Riley shrugged. "We don't want to jinx it," She muttered, looking out over the water. "We're going to announce it soon, but right now, we just want to keep it to ourselves." She blinked once. "Besides you knowing and everything."

"I won't tell," Kendall said quickly.

"I know," Riley agreed. "You wanted to be our friend so badly; I doubt that you'd want to ruin it now." She jumped and flinched horribly when Kendall made a sound and started to choke on his Gatorade. He turned to the side and then spat it into the sand. She slowly relaxed, breathing heavily as she turned back to him.

"I knew it!" Kendall cried, punching the air with his first. Riley looked at him strangely. "I knew that you thought that we were friends." He calmed down, studying her. "How come you never said anything before?"

"Because." Riley sighed, thinking it over for a moment. "Because I can make friends, but I have trouble keeping them." She admitted. "For many reasons. Besides you guys never went away," she eyed him warily. "No matter how much I wanted you to."

"I told you we weren't," Kendall reminded her.

"What?" she asked after a minute. "I know that there's something else you want to say." She instructed, moving her bottle of Gatorade to her mouth.

"Nothing," Kendall hesitated. "I don't want to hurt your feelings." He finally relented. Riley gave him a look. He doubted that he could hurt her feelings, it was just the idea that he had. He didn't want to risk anything if he said it out loud.

Riley's cheek twitched. "Like you could," she taunted. "I'm not a doll, boofhead, you can't break me."

"No," Kendall shook his head, kicking at the ground. He twisted the top of his flashlight. "I really don't want to say it."

"No, go ahead," Riley continued to taunt him. Her voice was low, challenging. "You started it; you might as well finish it."

"I just think…" Kendall licked his lips. Finally, he looked down at Riley, when he noticed that she was looking directly back at him, he looked away. "That despite being with your brothers and sister, or with Ronan all the time, you're one of the loneliest people I've ever met." He risked a glance at her, he didn't think that she would cry, he didn't think she would yell at him, be wasn't sure what he thought.

But he didn't think that she would slowly smirk at him.

"Good to see that you have a backbone," she stated. "It's not like it's the first time I've heard that," she said. "That and that I'm a bitch."

"You're not a bitch," Kendall shook his head.

"And you're not a large eye browed freak, Hockey-Head," Riley returned. Kendall's face screwed up in confusion for a moment and when he remembered it, he started to laugh. Riley smiled when she knew that he understood the reference. He thought for a moment and then turned to face her completely. "You know, I'm still waiting for you to give me an annoying nickname."

"I haven't thought of one yet, but I will," Kendall promised. "Ok, we're friends now," he said with a nod. "So that means…we need a handshake or something." Riley gave him an odd look that was a mixture of amusement and horror. "I'm being serious, Katie and me, we have a handshake, and me and the guys do too."

"No you don't," Riley protested.

"For all you know, we do." Kendall thought for a moment. "Ok, it has to be good too, something else that people wouldn't think of." His eyes lift up and he held out his right first. "Oh, I know, put out your right fist." Riley did as she was told. Kendall moved his fist against hers. "Then, all you do is twist your wrist, so your thumb is towards the top," he demonstrated as he spoke. "Then stick up your thumb, and that's the handshake."

Riley sighed, shaking her head. "You know, this is why I call you Kendork."

Katie raced up behind Kendall and threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking him off balance. "Thanks for everything, Kendall." Katie said as she hugged her brother around the neck, after beckoning for him to bend down to do so. "It was the best birthday ever."

"I'm glad you liked it," Kendall replied with a laugh. "I just don't know how I'm going to top it next year." He said with a modest shrug.

"You'll think of something." Katie replied before hugging him again and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Big Bro."

"I love you too, Baby Sister."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I know that you guys would have wanted to see a chapter where DE was getting to know WayneWayne and thought that he was a good guy and that he deserved a second chance, but if I had put it in the story, it would have slowed down the pacing. That's why I'm going to make it a deleted scene (along with some others from this story) so I can adequately put time/effort into it.

I hope you guys aren't too disappointed.

I also hope that you guys really liked this chapter; I tried to show a lot of different things here. I hope that you guys liked the things that I did have; I was sort of annoyed that most of the chapter wasn't about Katie's birthday, but when I went back to _Big Time Rivalry _and looked over it again, I noticed that it was the same idea there. Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	39. When It All Falls Apart

**.:Chapter Thirty–Nine – When It All Falls Apart:.**

_"My life has the tendency to __fall apart__ when I'm awake, you know?" ~ Ernest Hemingway_

* * *

><p>James's phone rang.<p>

He looked over at it before gently setting down the set of weights that he had in his hand. Swinging his leg over a bench, he pulled his towel from his neck and wiped off his hands before reaching down to grab his phone. James looked at the caller ID and his eyebrows lowered for a moment. He stared at his phone as it continued to ring, his thumb hovering over the 'answer' button before he finally pushed it,.

He brought the phone to his ear.

"Hey Mom," he greeted as cheerfully as possible. "What's up?"

"Is that any way to greet your mother?" Brooke Diamond demanded. "Whom you haven't talked to in months, with a 'hey, what's up?' I thought I raised you better than that."

James chuckled. "How are you, Mom?"

"That's better," James could practically hear the smile in Brooke's voice. "Now, I'm not going to beat around eh bush about this. It's time for you to come home for a while." When James didn't answer right away, she kept going. "You already put out your first CD, you already went o tour, which you did a fabulous job on, but you haven't had a vacation in a while, so you need to come home."

"Uh," James rubbed the back of his head. "Well, we're trying to plan a time where we can go home. But with all of the training that we're doing-"

"James, you need to come home now." Brooke insisted.

"Mom, I can't do that." James dropped is free hand into his lap, already starting to get annoyed of the conversation. He didn't want his irritation to show, however, knowing that his mother wasn't going to be that happy about it. She was never the kid f mother that allowed him to express any kind of emotion other than acceptance, towards her.

He heard his mother take a sharp breath. "Did you just say _no_ to me?" She asked.

James bit his lower lip as he thought about the best way to answer the question. Technically, he did and didn't say 'no' to her. He just didn't think that it was a good idea to leave at that time. But he knew that if he tried to explain himself, he would just nothing but an ass-kicking. No one ever told his mother 'no' besides his father and Mrs. Knight. He had tried to tell her 'no' many times before, but he still ended up doing whatever it was that she wanted him to do. It also didn't help that the guy that usually did the best at saying 'no' to someone, was also scared of her. James smiled to himself a little; it was hard for him to believe that Kendall had turned down a snowboarding trip just to take a couple of ballet lessons because his mother said that it was too dangerous.

As soon as Kendall had been sucked into it, James knew that it was all over from that moment.

He didn't even really know what was keeping him from wanting to go home. He always loved to see Minnesota when he could, they even had a really good time when they had stopped by there on their last tour, but now he really didn't want to leave California at all.

"Not exactly," James replied slowly. "I just didn't think that we've found a good time to come home yet." He desperately tried to think of an excuse that his mother would by. "You see, we're working on our next album and then there's….the endorsements that we have, we're working on pictures and stuff."

"Oh," Brooke's voice lifted in a pleased tone. "What kind of endorsements? Oh, thanks so much for telling me, maybe you can endorse my products for me."

"Mom," James said patiently. "Your line is for girls."

"Not when I make a branch for males; lotions and body washes and stuff, it doesn't only have to be about make-up you know." Brooke continued to go off on a tangent. "And then we can do cologne and tweezers and nail clippers and-"

"Mom," James interrupted. "I'm doing the best I can to figure everything out right now." He paused and held his breath, hoping that his mother wouldn't pick up on the fact that he was about to lie. "In fact, I've been talking to Gustavo and Mama Knight about when they think would be a good time for me to go back." He bit the inside of his cheek. "And…I'll let you know when they come up with something."

"No problem," Brooke replied evenly. "I'll just call Kacy myself." She then made a kissing sound into the phone. "I have to go, some sort of crisis that they need me for. Oh, I can't wait to have my baby boy back home again."

"I can't…wait either, mom," James said flatly.

"Talk to you soon."

"Bye, Mom."

James hung up his phone and held it tightly in his hand for a few moments. He then shook his head and stood up, gathering his stuff together. He wasn't in the mood to continue working out anymore. His mother always had a way of making things less fun for him. He didn't hate her for it, but she had a way of being pushy that went a little too far sometimes. James replaced the dumbbells that he was using and put his phone back into his gym bag before slinging the bag over his shoulder and leaving the PalmWoods Gym.

He was walking through the lobby when he spotted Mrs. Knight trying to open the front door, her arms filled with bags of groceries. James hurried over and pushed the door open for her, giving a half smile as she walked into the lobby.

"Thanks James," she said, slightly out of breath. "Did you know that this is the fifth time in two weeks I've had to go to the store? If you guys weren't such a big band right now, I wouldn't believe it." She laughed lightly.

James faked a laugh as well. "By the way, you're probably going to get a call from my mom, begging you to let me come home," James turned on his heel and started walking in the direction of the stairs, "And since no one can say 'no' to her, I might as well start packing now."

"Honey, wait," Mrs. Knight went over to James and used her finger tips to grab onto his arm. She turned and directed him towards the chairs that had been set up in the lobby. James let out a heavy sigh as he dropped his bag to the ground and flopped down in a chair. Mrs. Knight gently put her bags down and sat down across from him, crossing her legs. "What's this about?"

Mrs. Knight listened closely as James told her about the phone conversation he had just had with his mother. Part of her wasn't surprised that she had called. No matter how proud Brooke Diamond could be, she never admitted it whenever she was lonely. And she had been lonely for a while, especially since her husband had left her for someone who was much younger than he was. That had to be a blow to the face, but it must have hurt worse when the media got a hold of it, as she was the CEO of the number one brand of cosmetics in the United States.

Mrs. Knight felt a little annoyed when James had sheepishly told her that lie about her and Gustavo working on getting him back to Minnesota and that it was their scheduling that was the problem.

"Sorry, Mama Knight," James apologized, smiling sheepishly. "I just didn't...I guess I didn't know what to say."

"Well, I'm going to ignore that for a while," Mrs. Knight said, holding up a hand. "But what I'm really wondering is why you never want to go home? The other boys and Katie are always so excited when they hear the news."

"Yeah, well…" James merely shrugged. He didn't even look up when a pretty blonde walked through the lobby and gave him a bright smile. She greeted him, rubbing her hand over his arm, both of which were exposed from the wife-beater that he was wearing, but he didn't say a word.

Mrs. Knight's eyebrows rose. _This must be serious._

"There's only so much that I can take, having to listen to her whine and complain about my Dad so much," James shrugged as he looked away from her. "I'd go to say with my Dad, but…that's awkward in itself."

_Oh, I get it now. _Mrs. Knight slowly nodded. It made sense, he didn't want to go back and be reminded of how bad his family was. A mother that worked too hard and pushed her son into doing what he wanted, so much that he was afraid of her. And a father that didn't care of his ex-wife's feelings at all and seemed to constantly parade around his new, young, carefree wife. No one knew how it was affecting James because he never wanted to talk about it.

"James," she said gently. "I know that your parents haven't really set up a good example for you, but there was always something that I wanted to ask you?" James looked at her. "Is the reason that you always go after so many girls, but never really go out with them or stay in a relationship, because you're afraid that you're going to end up like your parents?"

James stared at her.

"Or like your father? Getting bored and dropping one of the girls for someone else?" She knew that she had hit the nail on the head when the side of James's cheek twitched. "Honey, you don't know whether or not you are going to end up like your parents if you don't try."

"Yeah, well," James felt a little guilty when he thought back to how he had, not exactly, turned Riley down. "I don't want to risk it. I don't want to hurt anyone. Besides, being in a relationship is overrated. Have you seen how Logan and Camille act when they see each other talking to someone else? They get freakishly jealous. And then Kendall and Jo-"

"I happen to like Jo," Mrs. Knight interrupted, teasingly warning James about talking about her son.

"So do I," James agreed. "But she and Kendall together are disgusting. They're always acting like they're the perfect couple. But then…Jo never hangs out with me, Logan, or Carlos, and Kendall seems to go at her ever beck and call." He leaned forward and gave Mrs. Knight a look. "You know that thing that happened at the beach? The whole time they took a walk they were fighting about it, and while they seem to have gotten over it now, I know that Jo is still pretty upset, even though it wasn't Kendall's fault." He shook his head.

"Carlos and Stephanie seem to be doing fine," Mrs. Knight pointed out.

"Yeah, but Carlos is Carlos, he never really does what's expected of him," James said flippantly. He shook his head. "I don't really care what anyone says, Mama Knight, I don't want to end up like my parents. And if it takes a while for me to find that girl, then I don't want to bother."

"So _that's_ why you're always flirting with Riley and Rhuben?" Mrs. Knight asked with a teasing smile.

"Actually," James gave a small smile of his own. "I'm trying to raise their self-esteem. Don't get me wrong, they're hot, but with what they went through, I'm sure that he's put them down in other ways besides hitting them and I'm trying to find a different way to help."

Mrs. Knight nodded, briefly wondering if Kendall had told him about the trial, but decided he hadn't when James didn't continue. "Well, that's really nice of your, James." She let out a sigh as she thought for a moment. "I'll figure out something to say when your mother calls, but I don't' want you doing this again. You have to be open with her sometime."

"Can I do it on my death bed?" James asked. He grimaced. "That way she has less of a chance of killing me."

Mrs. Knight laughed.

* * *

><p>"So what do you think of this one?" Katie asked, turning away from her computer screen to grab a tube of lip-gloss that James had given her for her birthday. She turned back to the computer, where she had a Skype chat set up with Lizzie. "It's called…Scintillating Strawberry."<p>

"I don't think that would go with your skin tone," Lizzie replied. On her side, she was lying on her bed, a pillow underneath her, her feet kicking back and forth. Behind her, Katie could see dancing trophies and ribbons that had been set up. She could also see a picture of Lizzie and Dak on her bedside table. "The Watermelon one might be better."

"Yeah, probably," Katie said, looking down at the tube I her hand and then at the other twenty that were sitting next to her on her desk. "But I have so many to choose from thanks to James; it might take a while to figure out which one is best." She hadn't even gotten to the eye-shadow or nail polish at that point, though she had finished up a bottle from her last set, so it was good that James got her more colors for her nails.

"Uh, duh," Lizzie giggled. "That's the point of being a girl. Taking hours in the bathroom to look perfect."

"That's the last thing that my brother, the guys, or I would want," Katie replied, causing the two girls to laugh.

Katie turned her head when there was a knock at her door. Before she could ask who it was, the door opened and Kendall poked his head inside. "Hey, can we talk?" he asked.

"Sure, Big Brother," Katie turned back to her computer. "Hey Liz, I got to go." She looked at her watch. "But we're still going to the movies right?"

"Yep, at five," Lizzie then smiled evilly. "I bet I can get Dak to drive us."

Katie reached out and closed her laptop, causing the Skype chat to end. She turned and jumped onto her bed as Kendall entered the room and closed the door behind him. He then walked over to her bed and slowly stretched across it as well.

"You're going to the movies?" he asked.

"Yeah," Katie nodded. "Patrick and Noah invited me, as another birthday gift I guess, since they said that they'd pay for it. Lizzie's coming too."

Kendall gave a wry smile. "Sounds like a double-date to me,' He shook his head as Katie gave him a hard look. He studied her, noticing that she was wearing some makeup. "You seem to be trying on different kinds of makeup and stuff lately."

Katie blushed and rubbed the side of her face. "Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No," Kendall rolled onto his side, propping his head up with his hand. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the Jacksons and what's going to happen in the near future." Katie's eyes widened as she listened intently. "Well, the case that they have…Robert was offered a plea bargain, but he turned it down. So it's going to trial, but instead of it only being a child abuse case, he's trying to turn the tables on them and get them for defamation."

Katie didn't have to ask what any of that meant. She had watched enough FOX to have a really big grasp of police lingo and had an extensive knowledge of what happened to people if they were ever arrested for a crime. This wasn't good.

"How do you know?" She asked after a moment. "They didn't say anything to me.

"Did you think they would?" Kendall asked with a slight snort. "If it wasn't for the fact that I knew that we were friends, I would still think that they saw us as nothing but a job." He shook his head. "Mom told me," he replied. "On your birthday." Katie looked confused. "But we didn't want to say anything that could upset you or ruin your day."

"So," Katie started slowly. "Why do you think they didn't say anything yet?"

"For the same reason they didn't tell anyone about their abuse for so long," Kendall replied after moment of thought. "They're too scared." Katie slowly nodded as she took things in. "And there's something else that you need to know, but before I tell you…I haven't told any of the other guys anything about this, so I don't want you saying anything to them, alright."

"Alright," Katie agreed.

Kendal l took a deep breath. "Robert's lawyer for the trial…is our Dad."

Kendall expected Katie to scream and cry and be furious over the fact that the man that had walked out on them was going to be representing someone that hurt their friends. He expected her to jump to her feet and start to rant and rave about all of the things that had happened to them because he left. He expected her to be pissed beyond reason. But what he didn't expect was her calm reaction.

"So?" Katie asked as he shrugged her shoulders.

Kendall had a quick knee-jerk reaction. "What do you mean 'so'?" He asked.

"I mean, so what?" Katie shrugged again. "I don't think that anyone could actually believe that the Jacksons are only lying to ruin Robert's credibility or to ruin his job or something."

"So you're not pissed about Dad?" Kendall blurted, wanting to get to the real question.

"No," Katie picked at her nails, which Kendall noticed had been freshly painted a light blue. "I mean, I was too young to remember him anyway. In fact, it wasn't for the fact that I was born, I would think that I didn't even have a dad. Who knows," she shrugged. "Maybe I'm actually James's sister; we look more alike than you do."

"Katie, that joke, no matter how many times you say it, isn't funny," Kendall said in monotone.

"No, but your reaction is," Katie teased. "Kendall, listen, I know that you are incredibly pissed about Dad. But you have to remember that because he left when I was so young, I don't even remember what life was like when he was around. And I got used to our life, so that's why I'm not mad. I don't even care that he's back." She gave him a hard look. "What kind of chumps would believe anything Robert says anyway? If they ruled in favor of them, then I would have a little something to say to the judge at that case."

Kendall laughed a little. "You would, too." He replied.

"And then, of course, Mom would probably have to completely ban me from TV after that, but it'll be worth it." Katie smiled as Kendall continued to laugh. "But we don't have to worry about that."

"We don't?" Kendall asked.

"No," Katie shook her head. "Because things are going to go the way we want them to go. I can feel it."

"Whatever you say, Baby Sister," Kendall leaned forward and kissed Katie on the forehead before he got up from her bed and headed towards the door. "Have fun at the movies," he said. He paused at the door and then turned back around. "By the way, you don't have to wear all of that make-up and stuff; you're much more beautiful without it."

Katie rolled her eyes. "You're my brother, you have to say that." She started to mess with her fingers again. What Kendall said next got her complete and undivided attention.

"No, I don't," Kendall denied. "But unlike anyone else that will say it to you, I'm going to be the only person that means it every time."

Katie smiled.

* * *

><p>Carlos lightly kicked at the ground as he walked through the PalmWoods Park. He couldn't believe that he was letting it get to him so badly. The fact that the one girl at the beach flirted with Kendall and not him…he didn't think that something like that would ever bother him. Then he had to be so stupid and look at what people were saying on the internet.<p>

Carlos had been bored, looking at his frequent sites on the internet when he got the idea of looking to see what people were saying about their songs and about the band. He saw the topic of what song was people's favorite and so far the songs 'Oh Yeah' and 'Boyfriend' were some of the top ones with 'The City Is Ours', 'This Is Our Someday' and 'Big Time Rush' right behind it. He couldn't help but smile when he saw 'This Is Our Someday'. It was the song that they had co-written with the DarkElements and it was a song that he was really proud of. So to see that people were receptive of it just made him happy.

Carlos looked through other threads when he found the 'Your Big Time Rush Guy' thread and was curious enough to go into it. His eyes narrowed as he started to scan the original message.

_Do you love Big Time Rush? Of course you do, but who is your favorite guy. Mine is James because he's so sweet and really hot._

That was the original message and then other people had commented on the topic: Carlos, Kendall, James, Logan, Logan, Kendall, Logan, James, Carlos, Kendall, James, James, Kendall…The list went on and on. But what Carlos noticed was that his three friends were being named a lot more than he was.

That didn't surprise him really, as Logan was the smart and sensitive guy that almost every girl would want to tutor in math or science, Kendall was the fun loving, head strong guy that you would have fun doing anything with, and James was the hot guy that any girl would love to stare at for hours on end.

_This list isn't surprising at all_ Carlos had thought to himself, although he felt a small stab of pain in his heart. _I mean, the other guys are calmer and cooler than I am. I'm just a guy that wears a helmet for now reason and is so crazy that the hospital staff back in Minnesota knows me by name and isn't surprised whenever I go into the examination room._

He had looked through some other posts on the forum, but he couldn't help but go back to the forum ever few minutes and refresh the page. His name had only come up a few more times, and Kendall's, Logan's, and James's names had come up a lot. So he forced himself to go take a walk, if he didn't, he would have broken something at some point. It was that annoying.

"Hey Carlos!" Stephanie's voice sounded behind him.

He turned and managed a smile to his girlfriend. Her smile faded as she immediately noticed he didn't look as excited and happy as he usually did. "What's wrong?" she asked, looking at him in concern.

"Nothing really," Carlos muttered in reply, starting to walk again.

Stephanie quickly matched his pace and the two continued to walk through the PalmWoods Park. The two went in silence for a few moments, and then she grabbed his hand and forced him down onto a bench that the two of them were passing.

"Steph," he sounded annoyed, but allowed himself to get pulled down.

"Carlos, what's wrong?" Stephanie pushed her hair behind her shoulders and looked at him intently. "I've never seen you this down before, you're usually bouncing off the walls." Carlos just scratched the back of his neck and didn't reply. "Do I have to beat anyone up?" she gave a half smile when Carlos chuckled. "At least I made you laugh." She stated softly.

"You sounded exactly like Riley and Rhuben." He commented.

"That was the idea," Stephanie replied and rubbed his arm. "What's wrong?"

"It's stupid, really." Carlos replied as he rubbed his hands over his face. Stephanie stayed silent and waited for him to continue. "I was on a website," he explained, looking at his feet. He wrung his hands together. "And I was under the forum, just looking around and this one section was asking who the favorite BTR guy was." He messed with his fingers. "And I don't know, I was kind of annoyed that there seemed to be more people that liked the other guys than me and-"

"Carlos," Stephanie interrupted and grabbed his hands in hers. "Who cares what some fans think? They like you guys as a whole and they love your music." She tilted her head so she could catch his gaze and when she did she smiled gently. "What should only matter is what _I _think of you, you goofball," she lightly shoved his shoulder. "Better?" she asked when she saw Carlos' smile.

"Yeah," Carlos genuinely smiled and lifted his head to full look at his girlfriend. "That helped a lot, thanks Steph."

"I love you, you know." Stephanie said after a second, much to Carlos' surprise.

The two of them hadn't been going out that long, much shorter than Kendall and Jo or Logan and Camille had been going out. But she knew how she felt about him; she knew when she first met him that he was different. She didn't think that she would get to the point that she loved him so far, but now here she was. Being the first one to say it. It was surprising…yet nice at the same time.

Stephanie looked a little scared as she looked at Carlos, waiting for him to say something.

"I love you, too." He smiled as Stephanie beamed, her cheeks turning red with happiness. He leaned forward and kissed her sweetly, gently holding onto her cheeks as he did so. He grinned as he pulled away, pressing his head against hers. "So what is it that you love about me?"

"Your sense of humor," Stephanie replied and took his helmet off of his head and put it on her own. "Your sense of style, your cute smile." She smiled and lightly kissed him again before moving back, looking serious. "Add in the fact that I think that you're ten times better looking than the other guys."

"That's good to know," Carlos replied seriously. "Because I think you're better looking than all of the other girls," he looked over Stephanie's shoulder cautiously. "Just make sure that none of them hear that because we all know that they would kill me."

"That's true." Stephanie smiled back and gave him a hug, throwing her arms around her neck. Carlos smiled as he hugged her back.

Even though she said that she loved him.

He couldn't help but feel as if he didn't completely believe it.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Ronan?"<p>

Ronan looked away from his computer and turned his attention to the doorway, where Logan was standing. "Hey, what's up?" he asked, turning back to the computer.

"Not much," Logan slowly walked into Ronan's office. "I was just looking for Rhu; I wanted to talk to her about something."

"None of them are here right now," Ronan replied, his eyes still on his computer screen. "In fact, they had left early this morning to go-"

"Watch Dak do some sort of audition or something?" Logan interrupted.

"No," Ronan held out the word. He leaned forward and turned off the computer screen before turning his chair to face Logan. "I was going to say that they went out with some people from the marketing team to scout out places for their next music video." He held out a hand and motioned for Logan to sit down in one of the chairs that was on the other side of the desk. "But for whatever reason I have a feeling that you need to get something off of your chest."

"Kinda," Logan admitted as he slowly sat down in the offered chair. Ronan waited quietly. "Is it stupid?" Logan blurted out. "I just want things to go back to the way that it used to be. When we used to be best friends and having the time of our life. Now, half the time I want to hang out with her, she's with Dak!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Ronan said patiently. "But don't you have a girlfriend? Wouldn't that eat up most of your time? And, you guys hang out every Friday."

"Yeah, but Camille doesn't care about that," Logan waved a hand. "And we do hang out every Friday, but we haven't really hung out one-on-one unless we're doing homework or something. Or if she needs to help me with some dance moves or something."

"And you're jealous?" Ronan asked.

"I'm not jealous!" Logan snapped back. Ronan made a face of disbelief. Logan continued to look back at him. Finally, he let out a sigh and turned his head away. "Ok, I'm jealous, but not in the way that you would think."

Ronan rested his cheek in his hand and gave a small smile. "Oh?" He asked. "And what way am I thinking?"

"I don't have feelings for Bella," Logan said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself. "I mean, I did when we were kids, but not really, not anymore. I'm just…I don't know, annoyed because it seems like she doesn't want to try and have the same friendship as before."

"Logan, you have to remember that back then, was then their abuse first started, so maybe that's what's keeping her from wanting things to be the exact same," Ronan suggested. "I mean, one happy memory with you could have been tainted from something Robert did."

Logan nodded. He had thought of that, but he didn't want to believe that was the reason.

"Be that as it may," Ronan continued. "She's not replacing you as a friend," he seemed to have read Logan's mind. "Not with Dak. You wouldn't believe how much she talks about you." Logan looked interested. "I'm not kidding. More than half of the things that come out of her mouth has your name in it."

"Really?" Logan asked.

"Really," Ronan agreed. "And the thing that you have to remember is-"

"People grow up, they change, and so do friendships. But that doesn't mean that your relationship with that person gets any less special, it just means that you can make it that much better?" Logan guessed. At Ronan's look, he quickly explained. "Riley said that to me when we were at the beach."

"Yeah, she does have a tendency to sound like a fortune cookie when giving advice, all vague and everything," Ronan said with a laugh. "But what I was going to say is that you have to remember that having friends isn't easy for her. But you're doing a good job with being there for her; it's helping her a lot. The fact that you even ask her how her day is going, or just knowing what she likes and doesn't like, or are just willing to help her in general is what she needs. Trust me when I say that you couldn't be gotten rid of even if she tried." He then blinked for a moment. "I can't help but notice that you don't seem as concerned for Riles."

"Oh," Logan looked a little stricken. "We're close, yeah, but me and Rhu were always a bit closer…I don't mean to shut her out-"

"Don't worry," Ronan interrupted again. "They're used to it, when it comes to sharing friends. There's always going to be someone or some people that they get along with more than someone else, they don't take it to heart at all."

Logan nodded. "It _is _stupid," he said under his breath. "Feeling like I'm being replaced, but I can't help it."

"When it comes to being friends, you always have that chance to become friends with more and more people," Ronan said. "And just because there are one or two people that are more important doesn't mean that she doesn't have room for both of you." He laughed. "If that were the case, then she'd have to pick between her siblings. I feel that Riley and Noah would have an edge, but Sydney could easily squeeze his way in there."

Logan laughed at the thought.

He was feeling a little better.

"Thanks Ronan," He said. "For talking to me. I have a feeling that if I tried to talk to Rhu about this, she would be pissed."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Ronan admitted. "And you're welcome."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **While I'm not re-writing _WFLTIII: Here and Now_, I had taken a part of that story and re-wrote it in this chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	40. Not Your Birthday

**.:Chapter Forty – Not Your Birthday:.**

_"Some people won't go the extra mile, and then on their birthday, when no one makes a fuss, they feel neglected and bitter.__" ~Anne Lamott_

* * *

><p>Arthur Griffin looked away from his computer when Gustavo barged into his office without knocking. Griffin looked at him with disdain before he managed a smile, lacing his fingers together as Gustavo stood across his desk from him. This was definitely a welcome change, as it was usually Griffin that had to go to Gustavo's office to torment him. Now here Gustavo was, being able to have Griffin torment him without having to leave his office.<p>

"Gustavo, to what do I owe this visit?" Griffin asked. His smile widened. "Are you going to beg and plead for me not to sue you?" he asked.

"No, actually," Gustavo crossed his arms over his chest. He held back a satisfied smile as Griffin's own smile faded. "I can to make a deal with you."

"I don't know if you know this, Gustavo, but you aren't really in the position to make a deal with me,' Griffin said slowly.

"In this case, I am," Gustavo said. "In case you've forgotten, I sold four of my five mansions so I would be able to buy the boys from you. And after I did that, we should have had our contract changed so I would have more of a hold on them."

Griffin shrugged. "It's not my fault you weren't more proactive."

"You're right, it's not," Gustavo agreed. "That's why I think my wanting to sue you was a little over the top. I didn't think things out." He took a breath. "It's my fault that I didn't press on the idea of updating our contract, but we didn't and it happened. That's why I want to make a deal."

Griffin thought for a moment. "What kind of deal?" he suddenly asked.

"You give me a bigger deal on the boys," Gustavo said. "I have a much bigger reign on them when it comes to their music and their marketing."

"And what do I get out of this?" Griffin asked. "It seems that you're trying to completely take them away from me and as the head of this company that doesn't sit well with me."

"That's why you're going to have the ultimate say in everything we do," Gustavo said after a moment. He had thought long and hard about this, spent many all nighters with Kelly and they decided that this was the best way to handle things. "Every decision we make, if you don't like it, we'll come up with a better idea until you approve. You don't, though, get to take control like you did with that botched photo shoot."

"And how is that going to help me?" Griffin asked.

"You're not really in tune with teenagers nowadays and you don't know what they like, charts and statistics aside, I can continue to bring in money with that." He said honestly. "And the more money you get, the more people will want to work with you."

"Interesting," Griffin continued. He slowly rubbed his chin. It did seem like a really good compromise, that way he wouldn't have to do as much work and he would still get all of that money, if not more, from the guys. "Very interesting."

"But you're going to have to give the boys more free reign," Gustavo continued. "Don't hire more than two songwriters; the boys need to figure out how to do things like this on their won if they want to be big."

"You want me to risk letting them write their own songs just so you can prove that you know what you're doing?" Griffin asked incredulously.

Gustavo nodded. "Exactly."

Griffin stared in shock. It was ballsy and it just might work. Not many people wrote their own songs much anymore and it was their second CD where they were doing most of it on their own. Most times it took bands a while to get to that point and they were doing it almost right out of the gate. It was unheard of. It was genius.

"Alright, Gustavo," Griffin finally agreed. "I'll give you that chance. But you can't fail at this or you'll be fired. And I mean it this time."

"No problem," Gustavo held out a hand and Griffin took it, the two men shaking on it. Gustavo then left Griffin's office and went back to his own, where he had Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James wait for him. Katie had tagged along as well, as soon as he entered the room, Carlos leapt to his feet.

"Well?" He asked. "What did he say?"

Gustavo paused for dramatic effect. "He said that it's a good idea. The second CD is back on!" Gustavo punched the air with his first as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James burst into cheers. "He also thought that the idea of you boys writing your own songs would is a good idea as well." He sat down in his chair.

"Thanks Gustavo," James said sincerely. "We wouldn't have been able to do this without you."

"I know," Gustavo barked. "You _dogs _can't do _anything_ without my help!" He then glared at the four boys. "Which reminds me…" he sat up and placed his hands on his desk. "WHAT MADE YOU IDIOTS THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO CUT YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT?"

"You don't like it?" Kendall ran a hand through his hair.

"I think we look good," James added.

"YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS!" Gustavo continued to scream.

"Well, I didn't miss that," Katie stage-whispered to Logan, who snickered in agreement. "I could go for _weeks_ before I missed Gustavo screaming like that." Logan laughed harder and nodded.

"Well, you and Kelly were the ones that said that we should upgrade our look for our new CD," Carlos spoke up. "And we're seventeen now," he looked at Kendall and Logan. "Well, most of us anyway. So we should look older."

"WHO'S IDEA WAS IT?" Gustavo screamed louder, causing the boys to jump. "Wait, I know. It was those Jacksons wasn't it? Did Ronan put them up to this? I bet he did!" As Gustavo continued to rant, the boys and Katie started to back away to the door.

"Let's get out of here and tell them the good news," Carlos whispered loudly.

"Good idea," Katie agreed. She pushed past the boys and raced out of Gustavo's office with them following behind her and Gustavo's screams of pent-up frustration still following them onto the street.

* * *

><p>"Have I ever told you guys what Robert said part of my contract was?" Ronan asked as he turned in his chair to look down the large wooden table at the Jacksons. They shook their heads in reply. "Well, part of my contract said that I couldn't work with any other band besides you guys," he paused. "And now that I'm able to do what I want…I was wondering if it would bother you guys if I sent Matt out to recruit more bands or whatever to work with when I'm not working with you."<p>

Noah wrinkled his nose. "Why would that bother us? Isn't that the point of being a music producer?"

"Yes," Ronan nodded. "But over the years I've been getting backlash about only working with you guys, so I thought that you would take it as an insult if I wanted to branch out and work with someone else."

"It makes sense," Noah shrugged. "I mean, we always thought that you would go off and work with other people while we were getting bigger," he frowned. "We just didn't think that Robert was behind it."

"Yeah, well, he was a bit more devious than we originally though," Ronan said, tapping his pen against the table.

"You mean selfish," Riley corrected him.

"Whatever," Ronan held up a hand. "What' done is done, I only brought it up because I was wondering if you guys had any bands here or back home that you could think of that were waiting for their start."

Rhuben thought for a moment and then slowly spoke. "You could work with BlackStar," she said, looking over at Riley, who took a moment to think and then nodded in agreement. "They've been waiting for a break like this for a long time."

"Last I checked your most recent ex-boyfriends are in that band," Sydney said gently. "Do you really want that?"

"We left on good terms, so it should be fine," Riley insisted.

"Alright," Ronan jotted it down on his pad of paper. "If that's what you want. Anyone else you can think of just let me know." He turned the pad of paper to its side. "Ok, so we got most of the remastering of _One Step Closer _done," Ronan said, making a mark on the pad of paper that was sitting in front of him. "And we finally have decided to put Anthem of Our Dying Day on the new CD, as well we have also finished recording Just to Get High, Burn It to the Ground, We're All To Blame, and Your Disease."

"Beauty," Noah remarked.

Ronan flipped the page over to the next one and then looked up at Rhuben. "Next we're working on the song; Forgotten and I think that having your vocals on it for most of the song is the way to go."

"Why?" Rhuben asked. "I don't mean it in a 'why me' sort of way, just curious?"

"Like I said, your voice is perfect for it," Ronan said with a shrug. "Sure it has some rapping in it, but with your extensive music training and how you can hold a note out much longer than the others; your breathing control would be good for the song."

Rhuben nodded, smiling modestly as her siblings unanimously agreed on the idea.

"Now…have you guys decided what you want to title or have the main idea of your CD?"

Sydney nodded, clasping his hands together on the table in front of him. "Yeah, uh, we decided to stick with the same theme that we have been doing over the past couple of years that we have been putting out CDs."

Ronan paused, his pen over the pad of paper. He then lifted his green eyes and studied the five siblings in front of him. "Meaning you want to continue to write about your abuse?"

"Exactly," Rhuben confirmed. Ronan opened his mouth to protest, but Rhuben continued. "The advice that we have been given when it comes to working on music, which is the same that we tell our fans, is to write what you know. And that's what we know." She shrugged. "Sure, it'll be hard to deal with, but so far it's working." She sat up in her chair. "Besides, that's not our full idea." Ronan's raised his eyebrows curiously.

"We want to make this CD a deluxe CD," Patrick said. "So it has songs that are darker and has songs that are more lighthearted. So it accurately depicts our life, the darker side, which we want to call 'Black' is about how we had and have a hard time trusting people, things that we've gone through, dark thoughts that we've had. And we want the lighter side to be called 'White' where it has songs about hope, apologies, and realizing that life does get better."

"That was Noah's idea," Riley remarked, lightly nudging her brother on the arm, causing him to smile and nod. She turned to Ronan. "So, what do you think?"

Ronan's hand twitched, causing the pen that he was holding onto to shoot to the floor. He bent down to pick it up, stalling for time. "Do you think it's a good idea?" he asked. "I mean, you all said that you're not going to announce your abuse or the fact that I'm going to adopt you guys until you're perfectly ready for it. Wouldn't the idea of the CD just tip people off and make you make that announcement much sooner?"

"Maybe," Riley shrugged. "But we thought about it for a while and we all agreed that this is the way that we want to go." She then smirked. "Don't think that you can change our minds." She warned him.

"I couldn't even if I tried," Ronan replied, rolling his eyes. "You guys are the most stubborn people I've ever met."

"You say stubborn like it's a bad thing," Noah said. He cracked his knuckles. "Anyway, I have to do a quick edit of _Forgotten _then we can get started recording that. And we're also working on some songs that would go on the 'White' side of the CD as well, and if we want this to be a deluxe, we're going to have to start working on those soon as well."

"Did you get the music samples I e-mailed?" Ronan asked.

"Mhm," Noah nodded. "Patrick and I already started working on some of them."

"Good," Ronan said. He pushed the pad of paper away from him. "Well, I guess that's everything that I needed to talk about, you're ahead of schedule, a lot further ahead than I thought that you would be, frankly." He leaned back in his seat, a hand over his mouth.

"Is something wrong, Ronan?" Sydney asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

"No," Ronan shook his head. He then paused. "You all know that I would support you with whatever decision you make and vice-versa, I just hope that you all want to do this. But I can see that you really want to do this…" he shook his head again. "I'm just proud of you guys."

"Thanks," Noah's smile widened.

"That reminds me," Ronan snapped and then turned to Riley and Rhuben. "You might not agree with my idea, at least not right away," he said slowly, studying the looks on the twin girls' faces. They looked at each other in confusion before turning back to Ronan. "Considering you're turning seventeen in the next couple of days, I think that you should…start moving from the power moves that you do when you guys dance to more…uh, feminine ones."

Rhuben blinked. 'So what you're saying is that you want us to dance more like girls?" she asked. "Instead of the power moves that we typically do like Patrick, Noah, and Sydney/"

"Yeah," Ronan nodded.

"And you thought that we would be annoyed by that?" Riley asked, her eyebrows rising. "I mean, sure, there are a few dance moves that girls do that I don't really like. And it sucks that people are starting to care more about our looks rather than what we do, but it was bound to happen eventually, if we wanted to keep up with the times. I mean," she shrugged as she looked over at her siblings. "What other rock band can dance to their own music? I don't think any other than us, so we have to do something to keep being different."

"You're taking this a lot better than I thought," Ronan commented.

"Well, being around the guys so much, especially James, they have to start thinking about it at some point," Sydney remarked and he, Patrick, and Noah started to laugh as Riley and Rhuben rolled their eyes.

"Whatever, they're all about seventeen, boys will be boys," Ronan laughed as well. He reached over and picked up his phone. "Note to self, tell marketing team about new idea for CD and to think of teasers for ScuttleButter," He ignored the groans coming from the Jacksons as there was a knock on the conference room door. "It's open!" he called.

"Hey," Julius greeted as he pushed open the door and walked inside. He laughed as he was immediately crushed in a hug by his brothers and sisters. "Hey guys, how are you doing?"

"Great," Patrick replied. "We were just talking about some ideas for our new CD; we have a lot of songs recorded so far."

"Awesome," Julius grinned. "I'm going to have to listen to them to get back up to speed."

He, when he wasn't in school, worked part-time with Ronan being Ronan's assistant whenever he needed it. Though he didn't work in the music industry himself, after giving it up after putting out his own solo CD when he was young (he gave it up to focus on school and being a sports manager) it was a good way for him to stay connected with his brothers and sisters and what they were doing with their life. Part of it was because he felt really guilty over not being there for them when they were being hurt by Robert, but it was because he was working hard on his school work to get to a pint where he could become his siblings' legal guardian himself. Julius was the first person that Ronan had talked to when it came to his wanting to adopt them all, as he was the eldest f them and didn't want to overstep his boundaries. Julius had readily agreed though, seeing Ronan as a good friend of his and knowing, as well as seeing, how much he cared for his younger brothers and sisters. He couldn't see anyone else that would be better for the job.

"What are you doing here?" Ronan looked at his watch before moving forward to give Julius a hug as well, patting him on the back. "We thought that you weren't coming in until the end of the week."

"And miss Monster's and Munchkin's birthday?" Julius snorted before turning to his sisters and giving them a wink. "I don't think so." He then looked nervous as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Plus, I got done with m stuff early so…I thought that I would come home for a while and help out." He looked sheepish. "And, I brought someone with me if that was ok."

"It's alright," Ronan said with a shrug. "The more the merrier."

"Well, I wasn't sure how you guys were going to react to my friend, so…" Julius grimaced a little before turning and going back to the door to the conference room. He stuck his head out and talked to someone outside before holding his hand out. The other person grabbed onto his hand and he turned, gently pulling a teenage girl in beside him. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a shy smile on her face. "Guys…this is my girlfriend, Brittany McNabb." He turned to her. "And these are my siblings Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney," he pointed to each of them in turn and they silently waved in reply. He then turned to Ronan. "And this is…I guess my future father, Ronan McGuire."

"It's nice to meet you," Ronan said with a warm smile, reaching out to take her hand.

"It's nice to meet you too," Brittany said politely, shaking his hand. She then turned to Julius's siblings. "I've heard so much about you guys," she nudged Julius in the side. "He brags about you all, all the time."

"What can I say, I'm really proud," Julius shrugged. He looked expectantly at his siblings.

"How old are you?" Sydney asked quietly, before ducking behind Patrick's chair, peeking out at Brittany form behind it. He always got really shy around new people, although he was getting better at it.

"I'm nineteen," she replied with a smile and a nod. "Same age as Julius…though his birthday is after mine."

"Does it bother you that she's older than you?" Patrick asked Julius. Noah frowned and reached over, smacking Patrick on the back of the head. "Ow, it was just a question." He pouted as he rubbed the spot on his head.

"Thanks Noah," Julius smirked at his brother. "It doesn't bother me at all unless she tries to use it against me to get her way on something."

"Which is all the time," Brittany jumped in.

Julius looked offended. 'Is not." He protested.

"How long have you two been dating?" Rhuben asked, her right eyebrow slowly rising as she looked back and forth between her brother and his girlfriend. He could see it in her face, she was happy that he was happy with her, but she was also annoyed that he had never mentioned her to them before.

"For a while…" Julius hesitated. "We met when we were in high school, but we didn't start dating until college."

Rhuben nodded.

"Well, we hope that you enjoy your time here in LaLa Land," Riley said, tilting her head to the side. She squinted her eyes. "Is it the first time that you've been to the US?"Brittany nodded. "Ace, well, I hope you get used to the roads around here." She leaned back in her seat as there was another knock on the conference room door. "Come in!"

The door was opened as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie went inside, all with large smiles on their faces. Carlos started to talk about what had been going on, but then stopped when he spotted Julius and Brittany. "Oh, hey Julius, how are you?"

"I'm good, thanks, mate," Julius replied. He motioned over to Brittany. "This is my girlfriend Brittany, and that's Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James and Katie." Katie's eyes moved to her feet and she stayed silent as the others greeted Julius and Brittany cheerfully.

"What are you guys so happy about/" Sydney asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't think I've ever seen you like this since you first heard that you were going to be working with us."

"Gustavo just gave us the news," Carlos blurted out. "We're going to be working on our CD again! He and Griffin came to a compromise and they're letting us start again."

"That's…surprising," Ronan remarked. "I didn't think that they would ever come to a decision about it." He clapped his hands together. "But congratulations guys, I bet you're all excited to start recording and stuff so-"

"And writing," Logan added. "Part of the deal was that we have to write more songs on the CD…we're excited for it but really nervous about it at the same time."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Ronan reassured him. He then lowered his voice. "And if you interrupt me again, I'm going to use your head as a golf ball." Logan gulped and nodded.

"Wait," Rhuben held up her hand. "_Again_?" she asked. "When was the first time?" She turned to the guys and shook her head. "Ronan's biggest pet peeve is being interrupted. He absolutely _hates_ it."

"It wasn't important," Ronan said quickly. He looked at his watch again. "Well, I have a meeting to go to, but you guys can do whatever, you're done for the day." He turned to Julius and Brittany and held out and arm, leading them out of the conference room. "So what were you guys planning while you were here…?"

'So congrats about the CD," Patrick said. "Writing songs isn't that difficult, it's better if you just write about things you know."

"That's the same kind of advice that Gustavo gave us," James pointed out as they waited for the Jacksons to gather their things before leaving the conference room. "It sounds a lot easier than it actually is. I don't know much besides girls and dating."

"Who said that was a bad thing?" Patrick asked with a grin.

Riley rolled her eyes and hip-checked her brother into a wall, causing Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney to burst out laughing. Patrick scowled and turned, shoving Riley back, causing her to hit the opposite wall. Carlos's eyebrows lowered; he wasn't sure how they could go through so much abuse but then turn around and basically hit each other like that. He wasn't going to ask though, it probably would just make them upset.

"So, do you guys want to go to the PalmWoods?" Kendall asked. "I think the pool is free."

"I'd rather not," Noah spoke up, getting everyone's attention. When he spoke, his voice was clipped and he didn't look directly at anyone. "I mean, why would we go over to the PalmWoods when you guys are already here?"

"Besides, we already have plans to hang out with Dak and WayneWayne," Patrick said slowly, looking at his twin brother out of the corner of his eye.

Carlos immediately noticed how Kendall and Logan tensed at the guys' names. He didn't get it, he and James seemed to be the only ones that were actually starting to try and become friends with Dak and WayneWayne. Personally, Carlos didn't even see anything wrong with the two of them; WayneWayne had even apologized, so he didn't understand why Kendall was still holding a grudge. But Kendall was the one that sulked for a month after he missed the potentially winning goal for a hockey game. It wasn't even a playoff game or anything, it was just a normal game and he was pissed for weeks.

"Guys, can we _please_ not fight about this?" He pleaded. "Can't we just hang out or something?"

"Don't worry about it, CareBear," Riley shook her head. "We're tired of talking about it too." She then looked him up and down when Carlos let out a loud gasp and an excited smile slid onto his face. "What?" she asked.

"I finally got a nickname!" He replied. "Kendall and Logan and Carlos and James and Jo and Camille and Stephanie and Katie and Lizzie and Dak all have ones, but I didn't. Now I do!" He beamed. "I've been waiting forever to have one."

"You'd be surprised at how much he was pouting about it," Katie laughed, the Jacksons all had shocked looks on their faces.

"We didn't know what you cared so much about getting a nickname," Rhuben remarked, giving Carlos a funny smile. "If we knew that, we wouldn't have taken so long to come up with one." She shrugged and then silence fell amongst the group.

"Well, we came by because Logan wanted to give you guys something," Kendall said, speaking to Riley and Rhuben. Logan nodded and started to reach into the backpack that he had on his back. "How come you didn't tell us that your birthday was this weekend? You're turning seventeen, too, right?"

"Yep," Riley nodded. "Two days after Logie does." She then looked uncomfortable. "Besides, our birthdays were never really happy days for us, so we don't like to make a big deal out of it."

"Well," Logan smiled as he handed out two wrapped boxes towards them. "I hope that you guys like these anyway." He waited nervously as they took them and looked it over. "I worked really hard to be sure that I could get them in time, so…yeah." He then laughed when he noticed that they hadn't moved. "You can open it now, he prompted. It's not going to kill you."

Rhuben and Riley looked at each other for a few moments before they opened the boxes. In Riley's box was a picture frame and the picture that was inside of her, Rhuben, and Logan from when they were back in Texas. The three of them were standing in a creek with fishing poles in their hands, all holding up a fish that was roughly the same size, with proud smiles on their faces. In Rhuben box was the same picture frame, but a picture of her and Logan. Logan was sitting in a bed, the blankets pulled up to his chest and smiling widely, though he had a black eye, and Rhuben was sitting on the side of the bed with a book in her lap and smiling as well.

Rhuben laughed lightly, handing the picture over to Patrick so he could see. "Was this when I got you to stop crying after Riley punched you in the face when you threw up on her?"

Logan blushed as Kendall, Carlos, James, and Katie burst out laughing. "I didn't cry," he denied.

"Trust me," Rhuben nodded. "You cried. I remember." Her face softened as she glanced at the picture again. "Thanks Logie-Bear, I really like it." She smirked when Logan winced, which was his usual reaction, at the nickname, before stepping forward and giving him a hug. "We'll have your gift to you soon," she added when she pulled back, her arm still around Logan's shoulders.

"No rush," Logan replied, holding up a hand. "I just wish that we were having a joint party on the 15th like we did back then," he gave a sad smile.

"Yeah, well, I'm not really in the party mood," Riley said mysteriously. "Not really, anyway," she cleared her throat before turning to her siblings. "We're going to be late if we don't get going soon." She widened her eyes slightly, causing Sydney to nod.

"We'll see you guys later," Sydney waved to the boys and Katie before leaving Blazing Phoenix Records.

The guys and Katie left after them, walking in the opposite direction that the Jacksons had gone. Katie was the first one to speak.

"I can't say I'm surprised," she said, a frown pulling at her lips. "I mean, with all of the trial stuff that has been going on recently and having to keep going back to get questioned, I wouldn't be in the mood to have a birthday party either."

"Well, maybe we can cheer them up in a different way," Kendall said slowly, rubbing his chin.

"What are you thinking?" James rubbed the back of his neck. "Other than what we have already been doing? Hanging out and working with them when we need to work."

"What if we brought them with us to Minnesota when we go home for Christmas?" Carlos suggested.

"Exactly," Kendall agreed, looping his arm around Carlos's shoulders. "I mean, what other way than to show them that we really care about them. That's what Christmas is about…besides the toys I mean."

"One question though," Katie interrupted. "What makes you think that they would be willing to go with us?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Kendall replied. "We can get Mom to talk to Ronan about it, I'm sure that she could convince him. Besides," he shrugged. "What could go wrong?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Ok, since Logan, Rhuben, and Riley's birthdays was mentioned in this, with this chapter the story has jumped ahead a few months to September (since I put it that Katie's birthday is Ciara's birthday; in March). Now, what I'm wondering is would you guys want me to put up a chapter about Halloween. Really, the only basis for it would be showing off what costumes that DE would wear, but if I don't do that, I can easily move my other plans for the chapter to the next few ones. I was also planning on skipping Thanksgiving too, since I basically showed that/what my idea would have been, in my other story _Elevate. _Let me know what you think.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter; I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	41. I Don't Wanna Know

**.:Chapter Forty-One – I Don't Wanna Know:.**

_"If you don't know what you want, you end up with a lot you don't" ~Chuck Palaniuk_

* * *

><p>"Why is it that you wanted to meet me here?" Ronan asked his eyebrows rising as he sat down in the seat across from Mrs. Knight. "I mean," he cast his menu aside, already know what he wanted. "We came here when I wanted to talk about adopting my kids…<em>twice<em> so it must be something important if you wanted to come here."

He was referring to the Nordstrom Café and he had been right. The only other two times they had been there was when he and Mrs. Knight were talking about how badly he wanted to adopt the Jacksons. Now his mind was racing with everything that they could potentially talk about this time. It was actually worrying him, since he had met the others; it seemed that there was always something serious that needed to be talked about.

"I didn't even notice," Mrs. Knight shrugged although she was smiling a little. "Although that is a funny coincidence."

"I'm assuming that the 'coincidence' is that you really do have something important that you need to tell me?" Ronan guessed. He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. "Go ahead, I'm all ears."

"All right," Mrs. Knight held up a hand. "But I want you to promise that you won't judge me too harshly."

Ronan's eyebrows rose as he thought about what she said. If she had to give a warning like that, then it must have been pretty big. He wasn't sure how he knew exactly, probably all of the talk about the trial that was coming up, but he had a feeling that she was finally going to tell him about her ex-husband. All he knew was that it was a touchy subject with her and especially Kendall, but other than that, he didn't know anything else about what happened.

"I won't," Ronan said truthfully. "It wouldn't be my place to."

Mrs. Knight gave him a small smile before starting. "Well, our marriage was really good at first. We met when we were college, he was originally from Kansas and I was originally from Virginia. We met when I was a waitress while studying at Minnesota State and he attended the same college. He had gone into the diner one day to get some dinner and we just started things there."

She looked down at her hands.

"You'd probably find it funny that it's the same diner that I started to work and had continued to work at again from when Kendall and Katie were born to before we moved out here to LA. But I'm getting a little off topic. We had a good marriage and when Kendall was born, Kevin spent all of his time with him as he could. He was the one that taught Kendall everything he knows now, how to play hockey, how to play the guitar, how to sing, how to have a good strong, work ethic.

"But when Katie was born, it was when things started to change. He became really distant and short tempered. He always complained whenever I asked for some time off, because I was taking care of Kendall and Katie and working at the same time. Kendall was doing a good job of watching Katie when I needed help, even when he had his friends over, but still, I couldn't stay at work long enough when I only had a bunch of eight year old boys, who did nothing but get in trouble, to watch her. Thankfully my work was only a few blocks away from home so I could pop in whenever I was on breaks. But that started to take its toll on me, I was starting to get very tired and stressed. So, one day I questioned Kevin about what was going on, thinking that he was having some sort of affair. It would make sense, we were young, had two kids, he probably didn't want the responsibility.

"We fought about what was going on for a long time. I know that Kendall and Katie had heard some of the fights. Katie probably doesn't remember but I'm sure that's why Kendall loves people in his life so much. He wants to be sure that they're ok and that things aren't going wrong for them. Which, in retrospect, is probably the reason that he wanted to be friends with your kids so badly. Anyway, we fought for a long time about what was going on and he never actually told me what it was. But one day I came home when Kendall and Katie were at Carlos's house to find him packing up all of his stuff. When I demanded to know what was going on, Kevin just said that he couldn't be married to me anymore. He said that he had fallen out of love with me a long time ago and that he was just holding out for the kids. I'll admit that I did beg him to stay and suggested that we try to work things out, but he had made up his mind at that point. I asked him again if he was having an affair and he denied it, though I still think he was. So he moved out. It was only a couple of months later that we had decided to get separated rather than divorced because we believed that things could still get better and we wanted him around for Kendall and Katie.

"I should have just stopped him there, because deep down I knew that it was just a line to get me off of his back. But I believed him anyway. We got separated and he started to pay child support at first, but then it stopped. I didn't want my kids to get scared about it, since at that point I still didn't really tell them that their father wasn't coming back. But I continued to work at the diner for as long as I could, knowing that there was only so much I could do to make sure that they still had the life that they were used to having. Kendall was either told what was going on, since James's parents were divorced by that time, or he just guessed, so by the time that he had turned thirteen, he went out and got a job at the grocery store Sherwood's. I thought that he was old enough at that time to tell him everything that had gone on between his father and I, and I still regret that, because I think that it's what caused him to get so stuck in his ways sometimes. But I'm also proud of him for it. So being able to be out here, even though I was skeptical about everything that was going on, I thought that it would be good to leave that all behind.

"Now we figure out that Kevin is going to be the lawyer to a man that has made some…questionable choices with his life and I'm sure that he's now doing it just to get back at me for what happened to him and what happened between us."

She finally finished her story and looked away from her hands. She hadn't even noticed that she had taken all of the napkins from their table and had ripped them up in her hands. She now had a paper napkin pile sitting in front of her. Startled, she pushed the pile away from her. She looked up at Ronan and noticed that he hadn't said anything throughout the whole story. She was glad for that, not knowing if she would have the guts to keep going if he had asked her any questions or wanted her to clarify something. She definitely would have felt even more stupid for the way that things had turned out. No matter what happened to her and if she potentially got re-married, there was always going to be a part of her that wondered what would have happened if the two of them got back together.

"Wow," Ronan finally said. "That's…" he scratched his forehead. "That's an interesting story." He looked at the ceiling for a second and then looked back at Mrs. Knight. "Thought that _does _make sense as to how Katie acts."

"I've always wondered if she would have ended up liking pink and ballet if her father was still around," Mrs. Knight managed to joke. "But I wouldn't have her any other way."

Ronan smiled as he cracked his knuckles before the smile fell from his face again. "Not that I wasn't glad that you decided to tell me about a personal part of your life, I can't help but wonder why." He tilted his head to the side. "What happened to you guys sucked, but I'm guessing you haven't told anyone else about it?"

"You'd be right," Mrs. Knight agreed. "I've never actually told anyone. Not even when Brooke, Sylvia, or Joanna asked about Kevin leaving." She shrugged. "I just couldn't tell them. I guess I was too embarrassed."

"And you told me?" Ronan asked.

"You're the one person out here that I feel like I trust," Mrs. Knight said honestly. "I mean, there aren't many people around here that are my age that don't act like stuck up snobs." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "They're always walking around with their noses in the air and with their designer purses hanging off of their shoulders. If they have kids, they have their nannies walking along with them, taking complete care of them. It's really pathetic."

Ronan's smile wormed its way onto his face again. "Well, it's good to know that you consider me your friend. And I get what you mean, for a while, the only friends that I've had here was my kids, as pathetic as that sounds. So it's good to be able to talk to you too." Mrs. Knight smiled back at him. "But like I said, it really the way that things turned out."

"Maybe not," Mrs. Knight denied. "I mean, everything that was a direct result of Kevin leaving us, yeah, that's bad, but I like to think that we're a stronger family for what happened." She sat back in her seat and crossed her legs. "Speaking of family, how did you parents take it when you told them that you were going to be adopting your kids?"

"Great," Ronan said shortly.

"Really?" Mrs. Knight looked surprised. "It's a big commitment, you know, I figured that they would give you some advice or at least tell you what they were thinking about the whole thing."

"No," Ronan replied slowly. "They were pretty supportive…considering I haven't told them."

Mrs. Knight gave a startled laugh. "What? You haven't told them yet?" She then pushed her hair behind her shoulders as she looked hard at Ronan. "You're not afraid of them are you? Because at your age, that would be kind of sad."

"Thanks for that," Ronan rolled his eyes. "It's not that I'm afraid of them, it's just that I don't think that they'll be very…welcoming of them." He sat up straight and held up a hand. "I can even count on my one hand the number of times my Mom has said something bad about them and that was only when they accidentally used a curse word. I have plenty of other reasons that they shouldn't know yet."

"You mean until it's too late?" Mrs. Knight asked knowingly.

"Pretty much," Ronan agreed. "I mean, my Dad is great with them, when they first met he really treated them like they were his own grandkids, and that's probably because my brothers don't visit with their families often enough. But my Mom always has her opinions so you can hardly get along with her."

"She's that demanding?" Mrs. Knight looked like she didn't believe him.

"Exacting is the better word," Ronan corrected her. "She always wants everything to go a certain way." He shook his head. "But we were talking about you, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I'm just glad that you took the time to listen to me," Mrs. Knight said. She looked down at the pile of the ripped up napkin again. "Now that I think about it, it's kind of silly that I'm still so worried about it. With bad karma, Kevin's bound to get what he deserves."

"Not unless he wins," Ronan said quietly.

It was the first time that he had said it out loud. That there was a good chance that the trial wouldn't go the way they wanted it to; that Robert would hold custody of his kids and still be able to do whatever he pleased with them. At that point, Ronan was sure that Robert would be so bitter over everything that he would be fired and he would probably not be able to see his kids again. That thought scared him out of his mind.

"He won't," Mrs. Knight said firmly. "Not if we have anything to do with it."

* * *

><p>"Yes! I win again!" Kendall punched his hair into fists.<p>

Beside him, Logan, Carlos, and James groaned as they dropped their controllers to the ground. Sometimes they didn't even know why they continued to play against Kendall. If he won, he was a sore winner, and if he lost, he was an even sore loser. There was no way that any of them could win when it came to a friendly competition, even when it was just playing video games.

"Why are we always so surprised when he wins?" James asked, shaking his head. He then let out a slight gasp and ran his fingers through his new hairstyle, trying to get it to fall back down to its perfect position. Ever since he had gotten his haircut, he had been paying a bit more attention than usual to keep up with his looks.

"Because we're under the sad conclusion that we think that we're going to win for once," Logan replied, resting his cheek in his palm. "Which should happen in, you know, the next 3498234 we play."

"You just made that up, didn't you?" Kendall grinned.

"No," Logan replied sarcastically. "I actually crunched those numbers in, like, point five seconds."

"Hey, you're the Big Time Brain, not me," Kendall held his hands up defensively. His grin then widened as he lowered his hands. "And I'm the Big Time Winner, just like James is The Face and Carlos is the Crazy One. It's the balance of life; it has to fall that way."

Carlos stared quietly at Kendall before slowly leaning over to Logan, getting dangerously close to his personal space, just so he could whisper into Logan's ear. "Do you know how to kill someone and get away with it?"

"Not yet," Logan stage-whispered back. "I'm still working on it."

"Ha ha," Kendall rolled his eyes.

"But you have to admit Kendall, you have a highly combative personality," Carlos continued. "Especially when you feel that you should win. And there's nothing that can stop you from being a sore winner except for getting bad news or something." He rolled his eyes. "I mean, like, if you knew that your dad has been around a lot longer, than you thought, you wouldn't be in such a good mood."

James froze.

Logan held his breath.

"Wait a minute," Kendall held up a hand. He slowly turned to Carlos. "What did you just say?"

"I said if you knew that your dad has been around a lot longer than you thou-"Carlos was cut off when James and Logan elbowed him in the sides. Carlos looked confused for a moment and then he sucked his lips into his mouth, hunching down as if he was getting ready to be hit on the back of the head. "Oops," he said meekly.

James and Logan rolled their eyes as Kendall slowly got off of the couch and moved in front of the TV to stand in front of his friends. They all looked away from him, either looking at the floor or at the ceiling. What made it worse for Kendall was the fact that they were waiting so long to say something when they already knew that he was going to be mad.

"Kendall," James finally said.

"I don't want to know," Kendall held up his hands. "Because you're probably just going to try and find a way that makes me less pissed to know that my dad has been around a lot longer than I originally thought." He tightened his hands into fists. "Is that it?"

James nodded. "We saw him that day that we were getting ready for the sleepover before the tour started."

"That long-"Kendall broke off his first reaction to shout at his friends. He bit back the words that were starting to come out of him. He knew that if he said what he wanted to say, things would just get worse. "Never mind." He turned and started to walk towards the door of the apartment.

"Kendall, where are you going?" Carlos called after him.

"We should talk about this," Logan added. "The only reason we didn't say anything is because we didn't want you to get mad about it. And we know that you would. Just take a look at the way you're acting now."

Kendall shook his head before ripping open the door to the apartment and storming out, slamming the door shut behind him. He pulled out his phone as he started to aimlessly walk down the hallway. He contemplated calling Jo to talk about it; he had tried to talk to her about it before. But she never really understood why he was always so adamant about not talking to his father whenever he was having problems. But Jo's parents were more like normal parents that kids wanted, apart from the fact that her father worked for the CIA and watched his daughter like a hawk. He thought about talking to Camille and Stephanie but didn't think that was a good idea either. They wouldn't understand in the slightest and would probably take their boyfriend's sides since they were trying to help.

Kendall could admit that, he knew that they were trying to help by not saying anything, but at the same time, it just made things worse. They never kept secrets from each other; Kendall had told them what was going on right after his father left, now here they were, throwing it back in his face. He shook his head as he squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't be around the PalmWoods, it just reminded him too much of everything that was happening. He just wished that they could be back in Minnesota, that way he could spend his time snowboarding, playing hockey, and not having to worry about anything but having fun with his friends and family and enjoying the holidays.

He left the PalmWoods and took the bus to the hockey rink. Though he didn't have any of his stuff on him, just being able to be out on the ice helped him get over what was going on in his day to day life. If it helped keep him from getting homesick and made it so that their friends were cured from the Hollywood Fever, then he should be able to get his father out of his head with it.

_Why can't he just go away? _Kendall leaned forward on his bus seat, putting his face in his hands. _Why does he have to be everywhere when we're trying to be happy? _It was already horrible knowing that he was going to be representing Robert, but now the idea of his father being around and not trying to contact him just pissed him off even more. How was he going to be able to sit up there on the witness stand and have his father question him?

If he were his father, he would avoid it at all costs.

Kendall got off of the bus when it arrived at the Staples center and walked inside. He took a deep breath, allowing the cool air to fill down into his lungs as he walked through the bleachers, finding a place to sit down. He cupped his hands between his knees, thinking about everything that had happened. He actually felt a little bad; he always got so short tempered whenever it came to his father, he couldn't help it. But it was a topic that was always off limits to him; it was his berserk button and he wished that he didn't have it. It was the only thing that he absolutely hated about himself.

"Catch!"

Kendall turned his head and lifted up his hand as a hockey stick went flying towards his face. He lowered his arm and watched as Riley walked over to him. She had a on a gray beanie, a large red sweatshirt that went down to her knees, and had boots on over her black skinny jeans. The tip of her nose was red as well as her cheeks. Kendall laughed at her.

"It's not that cold in here," he said as she sat down next to him.

"That's what you think," Riley crossed her legs at the knee. "It's _freezing _in here!" She leaned forward, clutching her arms to her chest as she shivered. "I don't see how you blokes can stand it, seriously, I feel like I'm dying."

"So what are you doing here then?" Kendall asked, resting the hockey stick against his knees. "If you think it's so cold, I don't think you'd come here willingly." Riley was silent for a moment and Kendall wasn't sure that she was even going to answer.

"Babysitting," she said finally. "The kids wanted to come here and I got out voted." Her eyes squinted a little and she turned her head away, hoping that he wouldn't notice that her right eye had twitched a little bit. She was sure that Logan was the only one that had noticed that it was her habit when she lied. Not even Ronan noticed it and that was because she didn't lie to him and even if she started to think about trying it, he caught on very quickly.

"Mhm," Kendall nodded.

"I'm guessing that you came here to clear your head?" She said, leaning back a little, shoving her hands into the front pocket of her sweatshirt.

Kendall wasn't even surprised that she knew that at this point. There was a lot of ways that she could have known about it. He had noticed that the Jacksons were very quick when it came to noticing what someone else was thinking or feeling. It scared him to know that someone could be that perceptive, just to look at you and know basically everything that you ever thought or felt.

"How'd you know?" he asked, for conversations sake.

"I saw it in an interview that you did," Riley replied. "You always come to the rink to clear your head. Though, I'm surprised that you're not playing since you're so obsessed with it, Hockey-Head." She thought for a moment. "I'm still waiting for that annoying nickname, by the way."

"I'm not really in the mood," Kendall twisted the hockey stick in his hands, staring down at the ice. He was silent for a long while and Riley continued to sit next to him, looking down at the ice as well. "Considering all of this stuff is now coming to light…I'm guessing that you know about the deal with me and my Dad and everything don't you?"

"Not for the reasons that you think," Riley said after a moment. "We didn't purposefully pry into your background or anything. It just came up when we were researching you guys. Robert had told us to figure out everything about you guys and we found out everything."

"How come you didn't say anything then?" Kendall asked.

"It's not our business. If it was ever going to be brought up, it would either be by you, your mom, or him. It wasn't our place to say anything." She got up and started to walk down the bleachers towards the ice, still shivering as she went.

Kendall looked down at the hockey stick in his hand again before following her down. He stepped onto the ice and walked slowly at first, making sure that his feet didn't slide out from underneath him, before setting the stick down on the ice. Riley rolled a hockey puck his way and he let it hit the stick, moving it in a small circle in front of him.

"He left when I was, like, eight or ten or something like that," Kendall surprised himself by saying. "And then after that I knew that things were different. I didn't really understand why he left, I still don't, and at this point, I don't care." He pulled back at the hockey stick and smacked the hockey puck with it. It went shooting against the boards and made a loud clanging sound. He watched it with disdain as it came back to him. "All I remember is that I had to spend a lot of time taking care of Katie and then I got the job at Sherwood's. Then I came out here."

"It's not that bad is it?" Riley asked, watching as he took the puck and shot it against the boards. She winced at the loud sound of the puck hitting the boards, her eyes closing gently. "You got to come out to LA."

"Yeah, but I didn't want it exactly," Kendall replied. "I only did it because the guys pressured me into it and I wanted James to have his shot."

"What a saint," Riley deadpanned.

"What about you?" Kendall asked, holding his stick against the ice and resting his arms on it. "Robert pushed you guys to come out here. Did you want to?"

Riley snorted. "LA's not my home," She explained, noticing that Kendall had raised his eyebrow at her extreme reaction to it. "Oz is. No matter how many times people try to get me to see why LA is so great, I just don't get it." She frowned, her eyebrows furrowing together. "I mean, it's filled with people who are so fake and are trying to use each other to get to the top. It's not like that back home, back home I can be myself, even being so big there. I don't feel like I'm always under a microscope, being watched."

"That doesn't mean that bad things can't happen to you there," Kendall pointed out.

A heavy silence hung between the two of them. They both knew what he was referring to. It seemed that everything always went back to that no matter how hard people tried to keep from bringing it up. But it was human nature, when bad things happened, people talked about it until it was over.

"Bad things always happen when we're around," Riley said, her eyes narrowing slightly. "If your last name is Jackson, you're related to a Jackson or you're friends with a Jackson, there's bound to be drama."

"I don't think me having met you guys has anything to do with what happened with me and my Dad years ago," Kendall said, rolling his eyes. "Not unless you had met him before." He held up his hockey stick and pointed it at her. "By the way, I heard that you and Rhu defended me and Katie when you saw our Dad. Thanks for that."

"No worries," Riley looked uncomfortable. "We're friends…I guess. And friends always do that sort of junk for each other."

Kendall smiled to himself and took another shot with the hockey puck. "It just _pisses_ me off!" He cried, suddenly feeling agitated all over again. "Knowing that he's walking around, acting like nothing in his life has gone wrong when he's ruined three people's lives."

"Considering the way you're living now, I don't think that he _ruined _your life," Riley reminded him. She then put her hands to her face and sneezed loudly. "God, I hate it here." She grumbled, moving her hands back into the sweatshirt pocket. But she still didn't leave.

"But he made me grow up faster than I wanted to," Kendall growled. "And he made it so that Katie doesn't have a father figure in his life. And he broke my mother's heart…and he broke us, his children…maybe for life. I don't know. It's not ok, what he did, and we're fine, but still, it just sucks." He shook his head. "Sometimes I just wish that he would die or that something terrible would happen to him so he knows how we feel."

As he ranted, he continued to smack the hockey puck back against the ice and into the boards as it kept coming back to him; each hit was even more aggressive than the one before. When he was done, he was breathing heavily and sweating like crazy, gasping for air. He had knocked out most of his frustration, which was what he liked the most about hockey, but it still wasn't enough. There was still a gaping hole in him. Riley had watched him in silence.

"Speak the truth," Riley urged him, a teasing smirk on his face.

"Does that make me seem like a jerk?" Kendall asked, standing up straight. He repeatedly tightened and loosened his grip on the hockey stick.

"Do _you_ think it makes you seem like a jerk?" Riley asked.

Kendall frowned.

"You care too much about what I think," Riley remarked, her eyes narrowing for a fraction of a second. "But no, I don't think it makes you seem like a jerk." Kendall continued to stir his drink. "If anything, it just makes you more real and no one can fault you for that."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I hadn't shown Racy in a while, so I thought that I should start showing it more here. There's more of Lella in the next chapter as well as more of Patrick, Noah, and Sydney. I hope you guys liked this chapter; I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	42. They Say That Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

**.:Chapter Forty-Two – They Say That Breaking Up Is Hard To Do:.**

_"False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine but leaving us when we cross into the shade." ~Christian Bovee_

* * *

><p>"Hey guys," Carlos greeted as the Jacksons walked into the dance studio to work with Big Time Rush. Carlos couldn't help but grin widely at them. "How are you today?" He moved over and held his hand out to Patrick, getting an enthusiastic high-five in reply. He then did the same to Sydney, and got the same result. When he turned to get a high-five from Noah, Noah just looked at him, seemed to pale a little bit, and turned away.<p>

"Fine," Rhuben replied as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She sat down on the floor, motioning for the others to do the same and a large circle was made as they all started to stretch. Her eyes shifted back and forth from Kendall, who was sitting a little bit further away from his friends, back to the others, who seemed to not notice. "How about you?"

"Good," Logan replied with a nod as he leaned forward to stretch his thigh. "How was your day? How was class?"

"Boring," Patrick spoke up rolling his eyes. "I don't see how anyone could like school; it's such a waste of time."

Logan let out a harsh, horrified gasp as James and Carlos laughed loudly. Kendall continued to look at his foot in silence as he leaned forward and held onto it ignoring his friends. Rhuben's eyebrows lowered and she looked over at Logan, who shrugged in reply, before a guilty look flashed over his face. It disappeared as he turned back to Patrick.

"How could you say that school is boring?" He demanded. "Education is such an important staple of your life."

"If that's the case, then why did we tour for a full year when I was fifteen?" Riley asked with a hint of bragging to her tone. "We were so busy we didn't do a lot of schoolwork then."

"That makes sense for your grades, Landy," Logan shot back, causing her to smile sweetly as she turned her head to the side, brushing her cheek with her shoulder.

Rhuben leaned back, resting her hands on the ground as she studied the four boys in front of her. She wasn't stupid. They obviously weren't talking about something. She could care less about what it was, she had more important things to worry about, but when it came to her job and helping them with their choreography, she didn't want anything to mess that up. Rhuben got to her feet and turned towards the mirror, placing her hands on her hips. This time as she looked at her reflection, she didn't even flinch when she saw Robert's reflection standing right behind her.

She merely glared at his as he smiled slowly at her. His reflection reached out towards her, his fingers slowly moving towards her shoulder.

Rhuben let out a shriek when a hand landed on her shoulder. She whipped around and backed up against the mirror, her eyes wide as she looked at James, her eyes unfocused. She hen relaxed, her shoulders slumping as she briefly closed her eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized. "You just seemed kind of out of it, Beautiful."

"You didn't," Rhuben snapped, roughly pushing his hand off of her shoulder. "I'm just annoyed," she then turned to Kendall and stared hard at him, causing him to look away, before she looked over at the other boys. "I could really give a crap about what's going on between you guys, but I want you to leave your freaking baggage at the door!" She spat as her siblings sat on the floor in silence, continuing to stretch. "You're just letting your frustration and annoyances come into the room and that can affect your dancing and I'm not letting you screw up all of your hard work."

"But you don't underst-"Kendall started.

"Touch Kiwi!" Rhuben snapped again. He knew what was going on with him; Riley had gone back to Ronan's apartment and explained to them what was going on. Yeah, Rhuben felt bad for him that it was happening because of them, but she wasn't one that would dwell so long on something that you couldn't change. "Drop it and don't pick it up again until you leave." Her eyes flashed as she looked over at the other boys. "Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am," Carlos nodded like a bobble head as Kendall, James, and Logan nodded slowly in agreement.

He looked over at Kendall out of the corner of his eye and Kendall looked away from him. He didn't blame him in the slightest, if he was as mad at his father as Kendall was, and then found out that his best friends knew he was back and didn't tell him, he would be pissed too. Carlos sighed as he looked at his hands. Everything seemed to be falling apart at the seams lately and it was like there was nothing that any of them could do to fix it.

"Now," Rhuben took a calming breath as she reached a hand behind her and started to rub her sore shoulder. She had smacked it hard enough against the glass that it was starting to bruise. "I want you guys to run through _City Is Ours _and I'll let you know what we're doing next." She flicked her head over to her siblings. "But instead of you looking at your reflections, and seeing how you mess up, we're going to try a mirroring technique."

"Mirroring?" James repeated, raising an eyebrow. He looked disappointed. "So we don't get to use the mirrors at all?"

"No," Rhuben replied shortly. She nodded over to her siblings. "We've learned each and every bit of your guys' choreography," she explained. "And what we're going to do is we're going to match you up with one of us so you can mimic the moves that they're doing so you can get better." She raised a hand. "For example, I'll work with Logan, because he needs to learn not to be such a perfectionist." She pointed over at Riley. "Ri'll work with Kendall because he needs to learn how to be more confident on stage," she pointed over at Patrick. "You'll work with James because he needs to work on his stage presence," she then pointed over to Noah. "And he'll work with Carlos so he can learn how to control his energy when he's on stage. It's good to have a lot of it, but at the same time, you don't want to have so much that you are making yourself appear apart from the rest of the group."

"What about Syd?" Logan asked, pointing over to the younger boy.

"Little Man will work along with whoever else needs extra help," Rhuben said calmly. "He may be little and he may be young, but he works hard to be sure that he gets everything done perfectly." Her eyes shifted over the boys. "Got it?"

"Got it," they all said in reply.

Rhuben studied them a moment longer, something odd flashing in her eyes before she walked over to the boom box and used the tip of her shoe to turn on the music. She then moved back in front of Logan and looked directly at him.

"The point of the exercise is that you're supposed to keep your eyes on the other person's face and to do the moves from memory," Rhuben called over the start of the song. "That way if you feel like you're messing up, you force yourself to keep going."

They then went through the dance moves for the City is Ours. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James did their best to keep their gazes on Riley, Rhuben, Noah, and Patrick, though it was obvious that with their extensive training and all of the years that they had been a band the Jacksons were far more experienced with the moves, executing them nearly perfectly. They had made it through most of the song before the Jacksons had started to throw in their own dance moves for the song, causing the boys to falter a little bit. But that had been part of Rhuben's plan. She smirked when she noticed the look of panic that flashed through Logan's eyes.

He looked back at her and then slowly smiled, catching onto what she was doing. He kept going the best that he could as the song drew to a close. Out of the corners of his eyes he could see his friends had caught onto it as well, continuing with the actual routine as best as they could. When the music stopped, Rhuben actually looked pleased.

"You guys aren't as idiotic as I originally thought," she commented as she walked over to the boom box. "And I men that in a good way," she added, noticing the unsure looks that the boys sent each other. "You caught on a lot faster than I thought you were going to."

"We probably should have seen it coming," Carlos said with a smile. "I mean, Gustavo wouldn't have hired you if you weren't going to challenge us in some way."

"Or motivate," James added with a grin.

"Thanks," Rhuben pointed over at him. "I needed that ego boost."

"From what I can see you guys have progressed a lot quicker than we thought you would," Riley added, brushing her pigtails behinds her shoulders. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at them. "But I thought that you were supposed to be working on more difficult choreography." She righted her head. "Or at least some new stuff for your guys' new CD." She shrugged. "That's what I thought form last time anyway."

While the Jacksons worked with Gustavo, they weren't needed every day or it was that Gustavo wanted the guys to focus on one thing. So if he needed them to try on clothes for an event that was coming up, he would only call Riley to go to Rocque Records and her siblings would either tag along to get some of their own work done or to help or just didn't show up. The same thing happened if they needed to work on their choreography, Rhuben was called in and whether or not the others wanted to go, they would go and if they didn't they didn't. Most times they all went to Rocque Records but if someone wasn't going to be there, they would text the boys about it before they went to school so they wouldn't be surprised when they got there.

It became such a routine that the boys would look forward to 3:30, when they would arrive to work with them.

"I would, if Gustavo would give me some of the samples that they're working on so I can think of something," Rhuben replied with a shrug. "But looking at music videos and stuff works too."

"How is your guys' CD coming, anyway?" Noah asked quietly. It was the first time that he had spoken since they had gotten there. "Did you get any new songs started yet?"

"Yeah, we've had some songs that were written for us," James flipped his hair out of his face, using the bottom of his shirt to wipe sweat off of his forehead. "But Gustavo is really pushing us to start working on our own songs."

"It's not that bad," Sydney said encouragingly. "We've been writing songs, like, all of our lives, it's actually easier than you think."

"Coming from the genius that can practically do no wrong," Kendall commented with a half smile. Sydney gave a cheeky smile in reply.

"I get that a lot," he stated proudly.

"I'm sure you do," Kendall laughed, mussing Sydney's hair.

"Alright, let's get back to work," Rhuben said with a sharp clap of her hands. She brushed her hair behind her ears and turned back to the boom box. She didn't have to look up at the mirror in front of her to know that Robert's reflection was there again. She angrily slapped the boom box and stood up straight. "God! Leave me _alone_!" She shouted.

"We didn't say anything," Logan said.

Rhuben whipped her head around to glare at him. "Not you!" She snapped. She then turned back and kicked at the boom box. "God freaking dammit!" She brought her hands up to her forehead, breathing heavily.

Carlos exchanged glances with Logan and the two looked at each other in worry. They weren't sure what could be wrong, but there was obviously something that was bothering them. Carlos looked over at the others and noticed that Sydney was looking at his feet as he rocked back and forth on his heels, Patrick was cracking his knuckles, Noah was looking at the ceiling and Riley was rubbing her right arm with her left one. None of them would look back at Big Time Rush.

_It wouldn't be the first time that they're hiding something from us,_ Carlos shook his head.

"I said get back to work," Rhuben said under her breath as he started up the music again. "City Is Ours again and then we'll start working on Nothing Even Matters and Oh Yeah." She instructed, moving back in front of Logan. "This time, Syd, trade places with Noah, please."

Sydney nodded and moved to stand in front of Carlos, shaking out his arms and legs as he got ready. Noah moved and sat down by the mirrors, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his arms on his legs. He kept his gaze down on his hands.

The rest of the rehearsal went on with no problems. They moved through the rest of the songs that they had put out, even making up a routine for This Is Our Someday, and things had gone on pretty well. Rhuben had given them good constructive criticism, and even praised them on some points, which made them work that much harder to do well. Unlike with Gustavo or Mr. X Rhuben was actually really fair with the comments that she gave out, even if she could be a bit harsh at times.

"Good job guys, you seem to be getting the hang of it now," Riley said as she pulled her gym bag up over her shoulder once they finished. "And it only took you…about a year to get there." She added with a slight shake of her head.

"Relax, Sis, they're getting it," Sydney said. "A lot faster than some other people have, so you got to give them credit for that."

"Ace," she agreed after a second.

"Yeah, well, now you're free to do whatever you want," Rhuben waved her hands towards the door. "I've got to go talk to Gustavo about your guys' progress." She made a face she opened her mouth, miming sticking a finger down her throat, causing her siblings to smile and the guys to chuckle to themselves.

"See you later, then," Kendall said with a nod before striding out of the room, leaving his friends behind. James rolled his eyes as he watched his friend leave the room. He looked back over at Logan and Carlos, who looked just as lost as he did.

"He'll get over it," Noah said, flipping his hair from his face. "Just give him time."

The group then left the dance studio, going to the lockers rooms to get changed back to their normal clothes. Carlos changed as quickly as possible, wanting to get back to the crib so he could unwind from working that day. It wasn't like he didn't like working in the band, but there were days that it just tired him out and all he wanted to do was go to sleep.

He left the locker room and spotted Noah leaning against the wall, obviously waiting for his siblings so they could go back to Ronan's apartment. He took a deep breath before walking over to him. "Hey," he greeted. Noah shifted his eyes over to him but didn't say anything. "Listen, can I talk to you about something?"

Noah's eyes showed panic for a moment, but then he relaxed and turned to face Carlos fully. "About what?" he asked slowly.

"Well," Carlos paused for a moment, licking his lips. "I know that you have a crush on Steph," he said slowly. Noah's face paled even further before his cheeks bloomed a bright pink. "I was just wondering why you didn't say anything about it before."

Noah parted his lips, ready to say something, then he thought better of it as he shrugged, turning his head away. "I didn't think I had a chance," he replied after a moment. "And I know I don't, so what's the point?" He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at his feet. "Not like I was going to do anything about it anyway."

"Noh, you don't have to be embarrassed about it," Carlos said.

"Who's embarrassed?" Noah denied quickly. "I mean, I'm just being realistic. I had absolutely zero chance with her, and I wasn't going to fool myself into thinking that I did. Besides, you two are, like, in love or whatever, I couldn't break that even if I tried."

"How'd you know that?" Carlos asked. He hadn't even told the other guys that he and Stephanie had said that they loved each other. Stephanie hadn't even told the other girls either; it was just a secret between the two of them that he had thought that they had kept well.

"It's not hard to see," Noah said with another shrug. "Anyone with eyes can tell." He then looked confused. "Is there a reason that you wanted to talk to me about this? How did you know that I liked her anyway? Really?"

"Honestly?" Carlos asked and Noah nodded. "James brought it up to me," he admitted. "But I guess that I never noticed how much it was bothering you. It really sucks because you're a good friend and I don't want you to think that I'm purposefully flaunting her in my face."

"That's not your style," Noah said.

"Definitely not," Carlos agreed. "That's more like James. He ran a hand through his hair. "I think that you should tell Steph how you feel, if anything, she'll be really flattered that you like her. She thinks you're really cool, you know."

Noah stayed silent.

"But, dude, I really am sorry if I annoyed you with everything," Carlos said sincerely. "It's just that…she's my first girlfriend and I don't know…I guess I was kind of excited about it. Since the other guys can talk to girls so easily."

"Ha," Noah laughed. "If Logan could talk to girls so easily then he wouldn't have a problem," he muttered under his breath. He noticed Carlos's curious look but then shook his head. "No worries, Carlitos, I was the one that was too shy to say anything anyway. Besides, I'm two years younger than her; she probably doesn't see me as more than a friend anyway."

"Not like you don't have your own pick of fans," Carlos pointed out.

"But like we said before, we don't date because we don't know if they're dating us only because they're a fan," Noah reminded him. "That and…I don't want to hurt them." He added quietly. He then looked uncomfortable as he crossed his arms over his chest. "No worries," he repeated.

"So…we're cool?" Carlos asked.

Noah looked surprised. "When were we not?" he asked.

"It's just…you haven't really said anything to me all day, so…" Carlos trailed off and it was now his turn to shrug.

"I was just…" Noah thought of a good way to put it. He racked his brain, trying to think of the best excuse. Finally, all he could say with a pathetic frown was, "I was just distracted. A lot of things on my mind, you know."

"Oh, cool." Carlos smiled.

"Beauty," Noah agreed.

"So, do you want to come back to the crib?" Carlos asked. "We just got a new game for the Xbox and we can play that."

"I would," Noah replied honestly. "But…I've got some stuff that I need to do back at Ronan's place. Songs to write, inspiration to get, we have some stuff to look at for the new CD." He looked back at the locker room. "I was just waiting…so we could go."

"Alright," Carlos shrugged, although he had a smile on his face. He held out his hand for a high-five and Noah gave it to him this time. "I guess I'll see you later, then."

* * *

><p>"Gustavo, the guys are doing fine," Rhuben said lazily as she twirled some of her ponytail around her finger. "Even better than you originally thought, I don't know why you're freaking out so much." She placed her hands on her hips and turned to Kelly. "Has he always been liked this?"<p>

"Longer than you think," Kelly agreed with a laugh. She turned to Gustavo. "I still don't see why you don't trust her."

"I don't trust anybody that could potentially ruin things for me," Gustavo replied honestly. He pressed his finger tips together as he studied Rhuben, who rolled her eyes. "It's not that I don' trust you," he then contradicted himself. "Because you obviously know what you're doing."

"Obviously," she agreed.

"I'm just worried about the new CD that's coming out," Gustavo said. He then exchanged a weird look with Kelly. "And we're also thinking about the future and expenses and everything. There's just a lot that I'm thinking about."

"What does that mean?" Rhuben asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Nothing," Gustavo held up his hands. "Thanks for checking in with me." He stood up behind his desk and turned towards the window that was overlooking the city. "Good job today," he added. "I knew that I hired you for a reason."

Rhuben made a face and looked over at Kelly, who shrugged in reply, looking just as confused as she was. That was definitely not how the real Gustavo Rocque acted. He never gave compliments; it was hard for him to even act like he liked the guys. Now here he was, out right complimenting her. She knew that there was something up, that much was obvious, but she wasn't going to push it, it wasn't her place to know.

"You're welcome…" she replied slowly before turning on her heel and leaving Gustavo's office. She had only taken a few steps out of the room before she slowed down to walk over to Logan. She tilted her head to the side as he stood up and waited for her, a soft smile on her face. "What are you still doing here LogieBear?" she asked, confused as she pointed behind his shoulder. "I have to catch up with-"

"Oh, I sent them ahead," Logan said, interrupting her. Her eyes narrowed a little. Logan hoped she didn't already know what was going on with him, that would just make things that much harder. "I thought that we could walk back and we could talk? Mama Knight could give you a ride to your place later," He gave a sheepish smile. "There's…something that I wanted to talk to you about."

"I wondered why you were acting like a total weirdo today," Rhuben commented as the two left Rocque Records and started to walk towards the PalmWoods. "What's wrong? You were so focused on dancing today, but I could tell that your head wasn't really there." She added.

"You always could tell when something was bothering me," Logan remarked. "Even when we were kids."

"You're just that predictable," Rhuben explained. "And very obvious with what you were thinking." She added. "So what is it? I have a feeling it's something that's been bothering you for a while." She looked at her feet. "Like…when you were asking about my parents."

"I hope I didn't upset you when-"

"It's all right, LogieBear," Rhuben interrupted him. "Once something happens, it happens. And you can't stop yourself form remembering, no matter how hard you try, because when you try to stop yourself, it's the same as if you'd thought of it." She shook her head. "It's probably a good thing that we can talk about it now." She looked at her feet. "It just means that it's getting easier, I guess."

"Yeah," Logan nodded.

He licked his lips and took a couple of deep breaths. What he was going to say, it would either cause their friendship to be even stronger than it was before, or it would just make things completely fall apart. He wasn't sure which one it was going to be. He just hoped that things would turn out as well as he hoped.

"Listen, Bella, there's something that I wanted to talk to you about." He said.

"I know," Rhuben said. Logan looked at her funny and she gave him a funny look in reply. "You just said that you wanted to talk to me. That's why we're walking back to the PalmWoods."

"Right," Logan gave a nervous laugh. "Ok, so you remember that one day that we went to Blazing Records to talk about how we were going to be working on our CD?" Rhuben nodded. "And how Ronan threatened me if I interrupted him again?" Rhuben nodded again. "Well, he was referring to a time where I went to him to talk…about you."

Rhuben stopped and looked at him. "To talk about me?" She repeated.

Logan stopped as well. "Yeah, to talk about you," Logan repeated. "And about Dak."

Rhuben's face instantly changed to one of annoyance and he knew why. She hated to be talked about for one thing, preferring it whenever someone talked about her to her face rather than when she wasn't going to be there. But the fact that he had also brought up Dak in that conversation pissed her off, as they had talked about it before and he promised that he would drop whatever their relationship was, because it wasn't his business.

"What about it?" she asked her voice lowering.

"Ok, well," Logan spoke quickly, trying to get this over with. "I guess I was just jealous with how close you guys are. Because we used to be as close as he was, before we had to move away. And I thought that we could go back to what we used to be. But when I saw how he was flirting with you and knew everything you liked, it got on my nerves, I guess. I was really mad because it seemed like you weren't even trying to be friends with me anymore. You kept a big secret from me and-"

"What did you expect me to do?" Rhuben's voice was a harsh whisper at that point. "To come right out and say, 'hey it's good to see you again! Guess what? I'm a famous rock star and I get abused every day'." She stabbed her finger into his chest. "Do you really expect me to come out with something like that?"

"No," Logan shook his head. "But when I found out and you told me to keep it a secret-"

"So that's my fault too?" Rhuben asked her eyebrows rising. "You were the one that came up there at that moment." She turned her head away before sneering at him. "Just because I kept that a secret from you, to protect my _family _you think that gives you a reason to be jealous?" She laughed hysterically. "God this is so pathetic. Just so you know, Dak didn't know about us being abused either, so you don't have to be freaked out about that either."

"I'm sorry," Logan apologized. "I was just…"

"Jealous?" Rhuben repeated his word back to him. "Which is so fucking stupid."

"I thought you were trying to replace me with him," Logan finally admitted to her. "I thought that you didn't want to be my friend anymore."

"Wha?" Rhuben questioned.

"I thought that you didn't want to be friends anymore. Like we used to be when we were kids. I didn't think that you wanted to have the same kind of bond that we had before. Yeah, we hang out every Friday but we don't hang out like we used to. We don't tell each other stories, we don't go get ice cream after getting good grades anymore-"

"Because you'd get fat." Rhuben said maliciously.

"We don't talk to each other like we used to, where we'd meet up for lunch once a week and catch up. We don't even go rollerblading together anymore. When we were kids-"

"Stop." Rhuben held up both of her hands, causing Logan to immediately fall silent. She then moved her hands over her mouth as she thought for a moment. Logan took another breath and kept going. "Just stop."

"You're always pushing away the ones that care about you the most," he said. "Why?"

"Because, like all of the others, the ones that care about me the most are the ones that always end up getting hurt," Rhuben turned and glared at Logan, her dark blue eyes boring into his. "Just like you're doing now."

"Bella-"

"Don't you get that we're not kids anymore?" Rhuben demanded. "We're not eight, we're seventeen. And the times that I hadn't seen you…things changed! I'm not that same eight year old girl that you used to see every day. Ok I'm different. I'm me. You need to get that through your fucking head, grow up, and stop living in the past." She took a step closer to him, getting in his face. "And I would never try to replace someone, that's not my style. But I'm used to losing friends, you're not. So that's something that you have to deal with."

She stepped around Logan started to walk in the opposite direction back towards Rocque Records. When she passed Logan, she hit him with her shoulder as hard as she could before leaving him on the sidewalk, wondering if he should have kept his mouth shut and let his insecurity drive him crazy if he knew that this was going to be the outcome.

* * *

><p>"I'm coming!"<p>

Logan lowered his hand from the door and waited, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. He looked around before turning back to the doorway when it opened. Dak stood in front of him, looking surprised to see him. Behind him, Logan could see a woman that was dressed up in a maid's outfit, hovering behind Dak, her hands in clasped together in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" Dak asked.

"Can I come in?" Logan asked. "I need to talk to you."

Dak studied Logan for a moment before taking a step back and nodding over to the woman that stood behind him. He closed the door with his free hand before making a waving motion with his other one. "You can leave us alone, Clara." He said kindly. "We don't need anything." He turned to Logan and raised his eyebrows in question, wondering if Logan really did need something.

"Oh," Logan shook his head. "I'm fine."

"If you're sure, Dakary," Clara replied before leaving the room.

Dak grimaced at the use of his full name before turning and walking down the long hardwood floored hallway towards the kitchen that was on the other end. "If you're wondering, that was one of our maids," he said with a bitter edge to his tone. "Yes, we have maids and butlers, but that doesn't mean that I think I'm better than you." He said.

"I guess I do deserve that," Logan admitted as he followed Dak.

"Oh and that reminds me," Dak snapped his fingers before turning around and facing Logan again. "You know that thing that I was telling you about that would make me get out of my contract with Gustavo?" Logan nodded. "Well, it was a part of the show Next To Normal. I got it, so I'm not going to be around as much anymore, so you should be happy."

"All right, look," Logan held up his hands. "I already got yelled at once today and I don't need it anymore. I just wanted to come by and say that I'm sorry for being so rude to you." Logan said quickly. "And it's not for the reasons that you think."

"So you _don't_ have feeling for your best friend?" Dak looked skeptical.

"No," Logan shook his head. "I went and talked to Ronan about this, because I wasn't sure what I was feeling. And after talking to him, I realized that I was just annoyed because she seemed to like you as a friend more than me." He clenched his hands at his sides, feeling foolish. "I mean, we were best friends when we were kids and I thought that when we met up again, things would go back to normal. But they didn't. So after we found out about their abuse and everything and when Robert got arrested, I thought, again, that things would go back to normal. But they didn't."

Dak nodded.

"And then when I saw how close you guys were; you know her favorite flavor of ice cream, you guys have inside jokes-"

"You probably wouldn't like the nickname that I gave her either," Dak said with a half smile. He held up a hand. "Sorry, kind of a reflex." He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the counter. "From the way that I hear it, you wanted more to recreate your old friendship than be her friend again."

Logan sighed. "Exactly," he agreed. "That's exactly it."

Dak thought about it. He could understand how Logan was feeling. If he ever went back to Wisconsin, where he was originally from, he was sure that his friends back there had other friends that he hadn't known about/known of. Anyone would feel insecure about potentially being replaced by someone new. It didn't help that in this circumstance it was obvious that he himself liked Rhuben as more than a friend and while he didn't even know what they were at the moment, they weren't dating, but they weren't just friends either, it probably would cause Logan some distress.

"What did you mean when you said that you were tired of being yelled at?" Dak asked. He then bobbed his head back and forth. "You tried to talk to her about it?"

"Tried is the key word," Logan conceded.

"I could have told you that it wasn't going to end well," Dak said, pulling himself up onto the counter. Logan made a face. "Yeah, I know, I don't think you would have listened to me, but I could have seen it coming .The timing was horrible and you basically accused her of not trying in your friendship." He shrugged. "And you didn't really give me a chance either."

"I know," Logan pushed his hands further into his pockets, causing himself to lean over. "That wasn't really fair." He gave a half smile. "But you took all of the comments pretty well. Up until Katie's birthday at least."

"That was long enough," Dak said. "You know you don't have to be worried about your friendship at all, she talks about you all the time."

Logan grimaced. "So I've heard."

"She misses your guys' relationship too, the way that it used to be, but it can't go back to be like that because she's not the same person that she used to be…circumstances aside," Dak picked at his nails. "But in most cases she's the same person, though just grown up. She's still caring, she's still smart, she's still funny, she's still loyal. I think you're just looking too much at the shell that she, and her siblings, put up to make sure that they didn't get hurt again."

"How long did it take for you to get through it?" Logan asked.

"Not long," Dak said after a minute. "But I think it's only because Ronan convinced them that I was ok to work with. Since they became friends with Ronan pretty quickly and they trust his judgment, no questions asked."

"Right," Logan agreed.

"I just want to help her and her siblings the same way you do," Dak finally said and Logan could tell that the conversation was winding down. "Me and Lizzie, we're trying to show them that not everyone in the world is out to get them. And it's not helping when you all you do is try to make them go back to when-"

"To when things could have potentially started," Logan interrupted. "Ronan said the same thing."

"Ronan's a smart man," Dak said.

"Yeah." Logan bobbed his head. "Look, man, I'm sorry for everything. I guess I was just too stuck in wanting to help them that I didn't see how I was acting. I was being really selfish and way too overly protective and I didn't see it."

"It's alright," Dak forgave him.

"And you don't have to take the job at Next To Normal just to get away from me," Logan joked.

"That would be convenient," Dak laughed back. "No, I needed to do something for myself and musical theatre is the way to go. TV and Film acting isn't what I wanted. Plus, the dancing is fun."

"I didn't peg you to be a dancer," Logan admitted.

"I'm not," Dak said sheepishly. "If it's not choreographed I can't dance to save my life. I can't even slow dance without stepping on someone's toes. I have no rhythm in the slightest and trust me when I say that Lizzie has tried to teach me with disastrous results."

"I can see that," Logan laughed. "Anyway, I just wanted to apologize because…having to have her…I guess choose who she wants to spend her time with and t make things harder for her…it's not helping her at all. There's plenty of room for both of us…all of us if you're including everyone else, in her life and I don't think that fighting for her attention is the way to go."

"I agree,"

"So...sorry."

"Same here," Dak jumped down from the counter. "So are you sure that you don't want something to eat? I could always have Glen make whatever you want."

"A cook?" Logan guessed. He then smirked when Dak nodded. "No thanks, I'm good making my own food, thanks."

"Don't say I didn't offer," Dak held up his hands. "I'm still going to be working with you guys for a while but as soon as rehearsals start, that's when I have to jet out to New York."

"I guess I'm going to have to annoy you until you leave then," Logan's smirk grew wider as he walked towards the front door to leave, Dak following him.

He had managed to lose a friend and gain one in the same day. Now if only the trial would be over with, then he was sure that things would actually get better for all of them instead of continuously going up and down like a rollercoaster. He had heard that life could be that way, but he never thought that it would all happen at once.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **In case anyone was confused, if any of our characters see Robert (because of their PTSD) it causes them to act more like they did when they were still around him/being abused. Secretive, jumpy, aggressive, stuff like that. Plus there's all the stress that's already on them so it adds onto that.

I'm sorry that the story is turning more to the Jacksons but it makes sense as to what I have planned for them when the story reaches its climax. (Or at least the second one as it's already had the first when they confronted DE with their abuse). I had originally had it that Patrick and Sydney had a big part in this chapter, but then moved it to the next one as the last one was about Riley, this one was about Rhuben and Noah, and the one is about Patrick and Sydney. Julius and Brittany will be more prominent as the story ends as well as the adults of course.

I hope that you guys liked this chapter.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	43. What Would You Do?

**.:Chapter Forty-Three – What Would You Do?:.**

_"What would you do if you weren't afraid?" ~Spencer Johnson_

* * *

><p>"Hey guys, are you ready to go to 2J?" Ronan asked as he turned away from the sound board to look over at the Jacksons, who were lounging on the couch behind them. He laughed when he noticed that they had been playing poker and the game seemed evenly matched.<p>

"We can't leave until someone wins the whole pot," Noah murmured, his eyes on his cards. "We don't play the normal way people play."

"That makes sense considering that you guys aren't normal," Ronan joked as he slouched in his seat, crossing his legs. He rested his hands on his stomach. "I've known that since the day I met you."

"And yet you constantly wonder how or why we keep doing things that most people wouldn't approve of." Riley said with a half smile.

"She's got a point," Rhuben agreed. "Almost every time the guys do something, you may as well expect that we're going to be there or had something to do with it in some way, shape, or form."

"Trust me," Ronan reached into his pocket as his phone started to ring. "I've already stopped questioning it." He looked at the face of his phone and then pushed a couple of buttons before his voicemail messages started to play out loud.

"_You have two unheard messages. First message; Hey, its Rodney Jenkins from Royals Botanic Gardens and I wanted to get back at you on the idea of The DarkElements performing here when you get back to Oz. It's a go as of now; I'll get you more details later_."

Ronan made a mental note to call them back to make arrangements for it when the DarkElements had to go back after their six months were up. Due to their split contract with Rocque Records and Blazing Phoenix Records they stayed in Sydney or Australia for six months then went back to the other one for six months. (This isn't including the time that they're on tour). The way that Ronan calculated it, they would probably be going back to Australia after the trial came around, depending on when the date of that finally came out.

He was broken out of his thoughts when the next message started.

"_Hey, Ronan this is Alan McIntyre from Blazing Phoenix Records. How are things going with you state side? I hope all is well, if you ever need help you know where to find me. Anyway, I know it took a while but we finally got the results of your record sales from Too Close for Comfort. Are you ready for this? The CD went platinum. It went platinum in only a few months. Congratulations, man."_

Ronan jumped a large smile on his face when he heard the ear-shattering screams and cheers from the Jacksons. Sydney had even gone so far as to gather up all of the cards that they were playing with and threw them into the air causing it to float down like confetti. Patrick and Noah were so excited that they somehow had managed to tackle each other down onto the couch, pinning Riley and Rhuben as well. Even the twin girls were smiling like crazy; Ronan could tell that it was a genuine smile from the way that their eyes were lit up.

"Wait, wait, wait, shhhh," Ronan waved a hand, moving his phone closer to his ear. "There's something else." He went back to the message and listened hard as the Jacksons got off of the couch and moved closer to him, all trying to hear as well.

Ronan had the largest smile on his face as he hung up the phone. "You guys are not going to believe this." He said.

"What?!" Patrick practically screamed.

"Are you sure you don't want to sit down first?" Ronan asked in a teasing tone, it was obvious that he liked to keep the Jacksons on edge whenever it came to exciting news. Ruben glared at him, causing Ronan to laugh even harder.

"Cut the crap and just tell us!" Riley demanded, grabbing on his arm and digging her fingers into his skin.

"Ok, but I don't think that you're ready for it…" Ronan licked his lips and paused for dramatic effect, causing the Jacksons to all let out groans of annoyance. He laughed again and held up his hands. "You guys have been nominated for the Album of the Year ARIA Award." Before he could even finish his sentence, he was drowned out by Riley's and Rhuben's loud, excited screams.

"That's probably the only time that I'm ever going to screen like a girl." Rhuben stated her hands on Ronan's shoulders. She was jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. "Are you serious? You can't be serious!"

"Dude, I can't believe it!" Patrick had picked up Riley and was spinning her around in circles.

Sydney's eyes were wide with anticipation. "You're seriously not joking? This isn't a cruel joke?"

"_No,"_ Ronan's insisted. "You guys have actually been nominated for an ARIA." He stretched his arms over his head. "That means that you're going to have to announce it on ScuttleButter, MyFace, and Stumble if it's not leaked already. And then you're going to have to do a lot more magazine and TV interviews as well as appearances."

"No problem," Riley beamed. "It'll be _so_ worth it."

"Let's get to the PalmWoods and tell the guys," Sydney said, he was now bouncing up and down on his feet as Rhuben had stopped jumping. "Come on, let's go now. Let's go now! Let's go now!" He suddenly stopped jumping up and down and turned away from Ronan, his eyes closing as he winced.

"What's wrong?" Ronan asked, noticing his quick change in demeanor.

"Nothing," Noah moved in front of Sydney, holding his arms out so he made the shape of a 'T'. "He's just excited, I guess." He looked over his shoulder and then back at Ronan, knowing that he just made the lamest excuse that he had ever heard of. Ronan made a face, staring hard at him, not sure if he believed him. "Aren't you going to call Kelly and Gustavo?" he asked, changing the subject by pointing to Ronan's phone.

Across from him and behind Ronan, Rhuben nodded to her brother and gave him a thumbs up.

Noah nodded back.

"That's a good idea," Ronan agreed and stood up as he punched in Gustavo's number for speed dial. "I'll call them on the way to the PalmWoods. Maybe they can come over too and we can have a huge party."

"Anything is fine," Sydney moved behind Ronan and placed his hands on Ronan's lower back, starting to push him out of the room. "Just as long as we get out of here." He looked over his shoulder as they left the room, frowning at the emptiness.

* * *

><p>The Jacksons and Ronan had arrived at the PalmWoods with Gustavo and Kelly, who had met up with them in the parking lot, and they all headed inside to go up to apartment 2J. Patrick slowed down to a walk when he spotted Jo sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby of the PalmWoods, looking down at her hands. The last time that he had seen her so serious was when she was with the guys telling them that they knew he and his siblings were being abused.<p>

Something was definitely wrong.

"Hey guys," Patrick stopped waking. "I'm gonna go talk to Guitar Dude about something for a second." His right cheek twitched as it usually did when he lied.

"Alright," Ronan said, after studying Patrick for a moment. He probably knew that it was something else, but didn't want to push him into telling him. "We'll be up in the apartment."

Patrick nodded and waited for the others to leave before he went over to Jo's chair. "Jo?" He asked, moving in front of her. "Are you ok?" Jo nodded, still looking away from him, her blonde hair covering her face. "Last I checked, when people were 'ok' they didn't look to be on the verge of tears."

Jo gave a short laugh as she turned to face him. Her brown eyes were bloodshot and as he watched, she started to cry.

"Whoa! Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Patrick waved his hands frantically. "I always make jokes to make people feel better." He shrugged. "Rhu always did tell me that I have a habit of making things worse rather than better." He gave a sheepish half smile.

"I'm not crying because of you," Jo managed to say, wiping her tears away from her face.

"So, what's wrong?" Patrick asked.

Jo stayed silent for a few moments. Her eyes watered up again and she sniffed loudly, wiping her nose. She then wiped at her eyes, taking in another shuddery breath. "Kendall and I broke up."

"What?" Patrick asked, confused. He shook his head. "Wait, why didn't Ri or Rhu-"

"I haven't told anyone else yet," Jo said quickly. "I'm not sure Kendall has either. He tries to keep his business his business." She suddenly looked bitter. "Though I'm sure that he has no problem talking to Riley about this. Or anyone else for that matter, he probably won't talk to me." The bitterness went away and she shook her head. "He's been acting so different lately. Since you guys came along and we thought that there was something going on-"

"So you're saying that we caused you guys to break up?" Patrick asked, his eyebrows lowering.

"No!" Jo shook her head. "I'm not saying that. It's just; our relationship is so different now. We used to be, like the same person. We could always read each other's minds; we would always find a way to have fun with each other. But as time went on, things started to get different. Our dates started to become more like a chore. We started to fight more than usual and over such stupid things. His temper just seemed to get worse and worse. And I only just heard that his father was going to be working as your father's lawyer and when I asked him why he didn't tell me, he said that I wouldn't understand. And we got into such a big fight and…there was no way that we could recover from it."

"Jo, I'm sorry," Patrick reached out a hand and gently rubbed her knee. "I know you really like him," he added glumly. She didn't notice the dull switch to his tone or the disappointment that flashed through his eyes.

"I think I was in love with him," Jo admitted.

"Well," Patrick paused for a moment. "I don't know about that, but I do know that even if you love someone it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to end up with them." Jo gave him a look. "Sorry, that wasn't helpful."

Jo laughed, pushing her hair out of her face. "Pat, you're really bad at this," she said.

"But I finally made you laugh," Patrick pointed out, causing Jo to smile.

"Even though I don't really feel like laughing," Jo agreed.

Patrick frowned. "I'm just saying that you're young, Jo, there's a chance that you could get back together with him. Maybe not, the one thing that I want you to remember though is that you're a good person, with a big heart, and that things will get better even if you don't think it will now." He tilted his head to the side. "Despite the circumstances, can I give you some good news?"

"Go ahead," Jo gave a watery smiled and nodded.

"My brothers, sisters, and I…our CD _Too Close for Comfort_ we found out that it went platinum back home." Patrick studied Jo's face. "And…we also found out that we've been nominated for an ARIA, which is, like, the biggest award you can get in the music industry."

"That's great, Patrick," Jo continued to wipe at her eyes. "I'm sorry if I don't seem so enthusiastic." She apologized.

"It's all right," Patrick replied. He looked at his watch. "I have to get going to the crib, but…are you sure you're going to be ok?"

"Yeah," Jo stood up, brushing off her clothes. "I'll be fine." She reached out and lightly punched Patrick on the shoulder. "Once you stop trying to make me feel better." Patrick gave his lopsided smile, blushing a little. "Thanks for the help, Patrick," She moved forward and gave him a hug. "You're a great friend."

"Thanks," Patrick replied in monotone, sounding a bit unconvinced. "Feel better, Jo-Jo." He let go of her and went up to apartment 2J. He entered the apartment as soon as Ronan was telling the adults the news about the award. From the way that Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie were sitting on the floor with his siblings, a game of Monopoly being set up, that they had heard the news as well.

"Congratulations Ronan, that's awesome!" Kelly grinned. "You must be so proud." She turned toward Gustavo and elbowed him in the stomach. Gustavo glared at her and Kelly glared back before he sighed heavily and clapped slowly.

"I'm so happy for you." He stated through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, that was _so_ convincing." Ronan replied as he raised an eyebrow before his annoyance melted away into a smile.

"This is really a good opportunity for them," Kelly ignored Gustavo. "With all of the CD sales that they have been getting, not counting the ones on iTunes, it's no wonder that they got nominated for an ARIA." She added, causing Ronan's grin to get bigger as Gustavo's frown deepened.

"What _is _an ARIA Award exactly?" Mrs. Knight asked, turning from the stove, where she was holding onto a pan that held beef wrapped in bacon as well as mini-quiches. She turned and placed the pan on the stove before taking off her oven mitts. She turned back to Gustavo, Kelly, and Ronan, leaning against the counter. "Is that like the academy awards or something?"

"Close," Ronan replied. "The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards also known as the ARIA Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Record Industry Association, or ARIA."

"And if you get nominated, or even _win_ an ARIA award you get _a lot_ of media attention, and usually increases record sales SEVEN-FOLD!" Gustavo continued to sulk through gritted teeth.

Mrs. Knight, Ronan, and Kelly looked at each other, not sure what to say. Kelly tried not to laugh out loud. It seemed that no matter how long she worked with him, she would never get used to the fact that Gustavo had a habit of being jealous and very vindictive when it came to something he wanted. She could see that he wished that he had started Big Time Rush early enough so that they would be able to be nominated for awards like that.

"You know what?" Gustavo looked like he had a light bulb over his head. "This might actually be a good thing, because if your band _does_ winan ARIA, it would increase the popularity of the _dogs _in Australia _and _all over the world!" he turned and grabbed Ronan's shoulders, shaking him. "You band _has_ to win."

"I'm not going to know whether or not they win until the award show, chill," Ronan replied and then saw the look on Gustavo's face and winced as Gustavo started to tighten his grip on Ronan's shoulders. "Don't hurt me."

Patrick laughed as he sat down with his friends. He rolled onto his back and rested his head on Noah's lower back as he lay stretched out across the floor.

"I can't believe that you guys went platinum," Katie said, reaching over and poking Patrick on the cheek. "That's so cool."

"It really is an honor," Patrick agreed. He snapped his fingers before looking over at his siblings. "You know what? If we have a party for the certification of our CD, we should invite everyone from the PalmWoods."

"Well, maybe not everyone," Riley contradicted him. "Just the ones that we're friends with. Cause I don't want to invite the people that would just use us." She brought her right hand up to her face and started to pick at her knuckles.

James looked over and he frowned when he noticed that there were some scars that were starting to heal. He had seen the look of that before, in movies and stuff where the character had hit some glass. "Hey, what happened?" he asked, pointing to her hand.

"Nothing," she quickly pulled her hand away, avoiding Big Time Rush's gaze.

"We were rollerblading a couple of weeks ago and she fell on some broke glass," Rhuben added. "It's not the first time it's happened."

Kendall studied the Jacksons as they started the game of Monopoly. It was already going to be a good day, considering they had started doing 'Tradition' again as Sydney had started to call it. Where DE went over for dinner on Friday at the crib and then they played video games and board games and ate all night, then Patrick, Noah, and Sydney slept over while Riley and Rhuben spent some time with Logan. But it was even better now that they had the goods new from the Jacksons.

He wasn't sure how they were going to react to the news that they had for _them _though. It also wasn't helpful that he couldn't stop thinking about his break-up with Jo. Things just weren't the same as they used to be, he couldn't help that. But it still sucked.

But it was tradition and he didn't want things to be ruined because he was in a bad mood about it.

He smirked to himself as he thought about the conversation that they had had with Ronan about taking their friends with them to Minnesota for Christmas.

_"So what you're saying is that you want to take them with you to Minnesota?" Ronan asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. He raised his feet up onto his desk and raised his eyebrows. "That's pretty much what you're saying, right?"_

_"Uh, yeah." Kendall replied, shifting nervously. He, James, Carlos, and Logan had gone to Blazing Phoenix Records when they were sure that the Jacksons weren't there so they could ask Ronan for his permission to let the Jacksons go with them to Minnesota. There was a good chance that the Jacksons could say 'no' as they may had wanted to go to their own home to celebrate the holidays. It was bad enough that they weren't very open with how they felt about anything, so how could they be sure that they wanted to go? "So can they?"_

_"Why are you asking me?" Ronan looked offended. "I'm not their father."_

_"We know that," Carlos jumped into the conversation. "But we were hoping to keep this as kind of a surprise. Of course you and Julius could know, but we want the rest of them to have some fun and not think about Robert and the trial ad everything."_

_"And we thought that if they went back to Australia with all of the gossip mags and the tabloids trying to figure out what's going on, it would just make things worse," James explained. "While, since they're not as big in the states yet, which frankly is only a matter of time, we thought that bringing them to Minnesota would be better of them."_

_Ronan sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. Even though they didn't say anything, Ronan could tell by their actions that at many times of the day, the Jacksons thought about their father. In one instance, they would just stop and stare off into space, a scared look on their face. As if they were looking at a ghost of him right in front of them. Other times they wouldn't sleep well and would stay up, hoping to not dream of him. Other times, they would just suddenly burst out with a scream or a shout, as if they had just been hit or were being threatened. It was hard to deal with at times, but Ronan had promised that he would always be there to help them. Especially through something as traumatic as this._

_"You know what; I think some time off for them would be a good idea." Ronan stated after a second of thinking. "Julius and I were just talking about that. They haven't really gotten a break in a while." He paused. "But they really had their hearts set on going back home to Australia."_

_"Well, how about we do this," Logan thought for a second, racking his brain for an idea. "If they come to Minnesota with us, we'll take some time off when we can, to visit them in Australia."_

_"Well, you're going to have to ask them yourselves," Ronan said. He smiled. "Because if they don't agree to it, it's all on you, not me."_

"What's up with that look on your face?" Noah asked, peering hard at Kendall. "You look like you're about to laugh or something."

Kendall immediately wiped his face of any expression. He had forgotten how perceptive that they could be. He turned to his friends and sister for help.

"Kendall _always_ has that dopey look on his face," Katie said with a wicked smile to her brother. "It's a wonder that fans think he's so cute if he looks like a dumb blonde all the time." She and Carlos laughed as Kendal glared at the two of them.

"It's nothing really," Logan said, twisting his hands together.

"If it wasn't anything, you wouldn't be so nervous about it," Rhuben pointed out. She leaned back, resting her hands behind her. "If it's bad news, you can go ahead and say it. We're used to getting bad news." She looked over at her siblings. "Hell, we're used to being treated badly too, but not everybody can be so nice." She joked, causing them to laugh.

"It's not even that," James flipped his hair from his face. "We just want to ask you guys something, but we're not sure how you'll take it."

"So just ask," Rhuben's look faded into one of annoyance. "The worst that we could do is ignore you completely."

"Actually," Carlos spoke up. "The worse that you could do is just leave." His eyes widened as Kendall, Logan, and Carlos all turned towards him and glared fiercely at him. "What?" He asked, looking around. "What did I say?"

Patrick put his hands to his face. He didn't blame Carlos for what he said, they did have a tendency to run from their problems or things they didn't want to discuss rather than just face it head on. But that's what they were taught, to run from their problems and deal with it at a distance, not up close.

"Dude, just ask," he said, removing his hands from his face.

"We were wondering what you guys thought about coming to Minnesota with us for Christmas," Logan said. "We were thinking that because you guys are always being plagued about the trial here in LA or about the abuse that you faced back in Australia, it would give you guys some time away from all of that."

"How cold does it get in Minnesota?" Noah asked.

He and his siblings turned to Sydney, whose eyes shifted back and forth and then moved down, as if he was reading a sheet of paper that was being held in front of his face. Finally, he blinked and reached for the bowl of popcorn that Carlos was holding onto. "Negative twenty-two Celsius." He finally said.

"_Negative_ twenty two?" Riley and Rhuben repeated.

"I'm guess that's a bad?" James turned to Logan.

"For them maybe," Logan agreed. "They're used to living in warm climates. So going to Minnesota might be a sort of…culture shock for them." He thought for a moment. "Negative twenty-two Celsius is negative eight Fahrenheit." He shrugged. "We've been living with that, like, all of our lives, so we're used to it."

"I can't go to Minnesota if it's _that _cold!" Patrick protested. "If I suck in one breath of that cold air I'll seize up and die!" He slammed his fist on the ground for added emphasis. "Seize up and _die_ I tell you."

"So does that mean you _don't _want to go?" Kendall asked.

Rhuben thought for a moment and then looked over at Riley. The two had a silent conversation; their eyebrows moving up and down as well as their eyes widening and narrowing as they (some would say mentally) talked to each other about whether or not it would be a good idea. The only downside that they could see was the cold, as they absolutely hated it, and had stated in many interviews that they wouldn't go to a cold climate unless they absolutely had to; they would enjoy New York even more if it wasn't so cold most of the time. But for the most part, it seemed like a good idea. For a while they would be able to act like themselves, have a good time with each other, and it would probably be the first Christmas that they ever had that they got more than one gift.

They could actually enjoy themselves for once.

Rhuben raised her eyebrows and Riley finally bobbed her head back and forth. The two of them turned back to their friends. The conversation was over.

"Whatever," Riley shook her head, picking up the pair of dice that were on the table and handed it over to James, who was her partner for the game. "Let's just play."

They were headed for Minnesota.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I was planning on showing BTRs and Katie's reaction to DE going platinum and being nominated for an ARIA, but I couldn't think of a way to do it without it being boring/clichéd. I know that I said that this chapter would have more of Sydney, but I'm giving him his own chapter soon. Also, you'll see a flashback of Kendall's and Jo's break-up soon.

Because most of this story was on BTR, the last few chapters until the story ends will (most likely) be focus on DE as the trial comes up and the story ends. Also, if you didn't notice it, I made Stumble a parody off of Tumblr as MyFace is off of Facebook and ScuttleButter is off of Twitter. I thought that it would be better/make more sense if the girls didn't go with the guys and DE to Minnesota to celebrate Christmas. But they and Dak, WayneWayne, and Lizzie all have big parts again after the chapters with them in Minnesota are done.

What do you guys think of DE's characterization so far? Do you think I did a good job of showing them be completely secretive and slowly start to open up? Hopefully I did it well enough so that you can see them opening up now, but are still secretive and everything. (Since they aren't, like, really open until they're 18, 16, and 11 aka in season 3).

Technically the story _Wait for Me _can be considered in the timeline of the _With Friends Like these series/It's The Rush That You Get standalone_, but in the future. (I'm only saying this because of the conversation that BTR had with Ronan to get DE to Minnesota).

I hope that you guys liked this chapter. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	44. Minnesota Girl

**.:Chapter Forty-Four – Minnesota Girl:.**

_"I grew up in Minnesota and everyone is so nice there. It is like Fargo. Everyone's so chipper and you make friends just grocery shopping. We kill each other with kindness."__ ~Seann William Scott_

* * *

><p>"So then we went down the front desk and threatened him to help us by blackmailing him," Kendall said as he looked around the airport. He turned back to Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, who were listening to his story intently; Riley and Rhuben seemed to be half listening, and everyone else was milling around, doing their own thing. "The funny thing was, we didn't even have anything on him, but he must have some sort of secret he doesn't want us to know because he helped us right away." Kendall grinned as the three boys burst out laughing and Riley and Rhuben gave half smiles.<p>

"Logan Mitchell threatening someone?" Riley remarked, shaking her head. "That I have to see with my own two eyes, I don't see him as the kind of person to do something like that. He's too wimpish."

"Hey!" Logan protested.

James laughed as he reached out and knocked Logan on the shoulder before shaking him lightly. "Relax, Logie, you're not a wimp," he reassured him. Logan turned and looked at him warily, as if he knew that James was going to keep going. "You're a nerd, but you're not a wimp."

"There's nothing wrong with being really smart," Sydney said, matter-of-fact, coming to Logan's aid.

"Syd, you're only saying that because you haven't met anyone that's smarter than you yet," Julius said from where he and Julius were sitting in chairs, waiting for their flight to be called. When the Jacksons had agreed to go to Minnesota with Big Time Rush, they immediately turned around and asked Julius to go with them. Julius agreed because it would give him time to get to know the guys that his siblings were so fond of as well as give his siblings a chance to get to know his girlfriend.

"That must really bother you," Brittany said to her boyfriend with a teasing smile. She pointed over at Sydney. "The fact that he looks like your twin, but is a lot smarter than you are." She beamed as Julius gave her a hard look.

"So I stretch myself beyond my means, excuse me," Sydney shrugged modestly as Julius, Brittany, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, and Katie laughed. Patrick, Noah, Riley, and Rhuben merely rolled their eyes. Sydney then looked thoughtful as he pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and flipped it open, looking through it.

"What's that?" Carlos asked, sitting down on the floor next to Sydney.

Sydney shrugged as he sat down as well, crossing his legs. "Song lyric notebook," he replied and looked at Carlos earnestly. "My bigger one is in my suitcase, but I have a pocket one that I carry around to use whenever I get inspiration." He tapped it against his palm, looking around the airport.

"Really?" Carlos looked interested. "Maybe we should start thinking of carrying song lyric notebooks around everywhere, especially since we're writing more songs." He nodded towards Sydney's notebook. "You guys seem to always have them on you."

"That's the idea," Sydney nodded. "Inspiration can strike you anywhere, you need to be prepared, or else you'll lose something that could make a good song." He opened his pocket notebook and flipped a few pages. "Like, here for example," he pointed to a page. "I was at the park and was thinking about my mum and dad," he suddenly looked very down, younger. "And when I thought about them, I got the idea for part of the song _View From Heaven _which became one of the ones we did with Dak."

"How old were you when you wrote that song?" Carlos asked, studying Sydney carefully. Sometimes he forgot that Sydney was only ten years old (as he had his birthday over the summer) and that he also had lost his parents when he was young. He knew it had to be especially hard on Sydney, who was only one years old when his parents died so he probably had no memories of them at all, if not very little. But unlike the rest of his siblings, Sydney was really quiet about his parents' death and usually chose not to talk about it unless it was a funny story that he was begging his siblings to tell him.

It didn't bother Sydney a lot as he didn't have to worry about missing people that he didn't know, plus he had good parental figures in his siblings and Ronan. The only time he got really upset was when he thought about it for too long.

Sydney managed a shrug as he continued to flip through his notebook, his eyes entirely on it. "I think I was about six or seven when I wrote the rough cut of it, and then Patrick and Noah helped me with it." He smiled up at his older twin brothers, who nodded back in reply; they were listening to his conversation at the same time as they were talking to Katie. "And then Ronan went over it to make sure that it was even better."

"How come it wasn't on one of your guys's CDs?" Carlos continued to ask.

Sydney turned to a blank page and wrote down _I stretch myself beyond my means _before putting a question mark next to it as well. "It was a demo and we were trying to figure out where it went, but with the music we were doing at the time, it didn't really fit." He looked Carlos right in the eye. "You could guess why," he added seriously and Carlos nodded. That was when they were really starting to chronicle their abuse in their music, so a song that upbeat wouldn't really fit with the darker themes that they were going for. "But we got the opportunity to write a song for a movie soundtrack and we decided to just go with _View From Heaven. _So it's on a CD, just not one of ours."

"Well, you're a really good writer," Carlos complimented Sydney.

"Thanks," Sydney nodded. "And I'm sure you are too," he sat up straight, his eyes lighting up to make him seem more of his age again. "Do you have anything written down already? I could look it over for you." He offered. No matter the circumstance, music always seemed to make Sydney happier, if not for candy, video games, or anything else that could make a ten year old boy smile.

"Well," Carlos hesitated for a moment. "It's not written down exactly, but I got a few ideas from some fans' ScuttButts," he explained. "There are always so many people that want our attention that they're always saying that they're invisible to us."

"I know the feeling," Sydney said sympathetically. "We get that all the time." He wrinkled his nose. "It stinks sometimes because I would have, like, fifteen year old girls who really want my attention and it's weird to think they want some sort of acknowledgement from a ten year old." He shook his head, causing his black fringe to cover his face. "I'd like to show all of them that we know that they're there though."

"Exactly," Carlos agreed. "And that's what I want to portray in a song, but I guess I'm having a little bit of trouble with it." He cracked his knuckles. "Well, it's more like my insecurities in this band in the first place," he admitted. "I don't think-"

"Carlos, you wouldn't be in Big Time Rush if there wasn't a reason for you to be in Big Time Rush," Sydney said patiently. "Everything happens for a reason. Just like, we met you guys for a reason," he looked down at his hands, suddenly embarrassed. "That's what I like to think, anyway." He closed his notebook and turned back to his carry-on bag. He unzipped a few pockets before pulling out a Nintendo DS and fired up a game.

"So, do you have anything that you would like to do when you get to Minnesota?" Brittany asked, Sydney, changing the subject.

Sydney looked up from his DS and gave Brittany a 'duh' look. "You mean _besides_ open gifts?" He then looked thoughtful. "I don't know," he admitted. "I'm ten, and I'm in a band, I basically have no plans for the rest of my life other than my job." He got to his feet. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"I'll go with you," Patrick offered, getting up from his seat as well.

Sydney put his hands on his hips, looking annoyed. "I don't need you to walk me to the bathroom, Pat," he said pointedly.

"I have to go anyway, Little Man," Patrick shot back before reaching out and placing his hand on Sydney's shoulder and leading them away from the group. The two then went to the bathroom. Patrick finished before Sydney and told him that he was going to wait outside.

Sydney had just finished going to the bathroom before turning around and seeing Robert behind him. Sydney let out a yelp and ducked to the ground as Robert swung a punch towards his head. Sydney crawled on his hands and knees in between Robert's legs, trying to get away from him. Scrambling on all fours, Sydney tried to dodge his hands. His foot came at him, connecting with his side. Sydney went flying against my bathroom wall, letting out a soft whimper.

Robert finally caught up to him and forced his youngest son up into a standing position; Sydney kept his gaze down at his feet, salty tears making waterfalls down his flushed cheeks. Robert got right into Sydney's face and started to berate him. Sydney listened as he screamed insults and profanities at him, trying to stop the tears that had already fallen down his cheeks.

"Syd?" The door opened and Patrick stuck his head in. "Syd, are you ok?

Sydney leapt to his feet and raced over to his brother, latching onto his side. Patrick made a 'tsk'ing sound and lifted Sydney up into his arms, balancing his brother against his hip. He walked out of the bathroom before setting his brother on the ground and wiping off his face.

"Listen to me," he said firmly. "We're all going to get through this, all right," he said. Sydney looked up at him. "I know that it seems like he's there, but Robert isn't here. You're ok. Ok?"

Sydney nodded.

"Good, now, let's go back to our friends.

Patrick put his arm around Sydney's shoulders and the two walked back over to the group as they continued to wait for their flight to be called. He caught Riley, Rhuben, and Noah's gazes and gave a subtle nod, answering their unasked question. Noah nodded back and turned away, looking intensely interested in a plane that was sitting on the runway as Ronan turned to Sydney.

"Syd, what happened to your arm?" he asked, looking at a spot on his wrist that was starting to darken.

"Nothing," Patrick still held his arm over Sydney's shoulders. "He banged it on the doorframe when we were leaving the bathroom." He finally looked Ronan in the eye. "Is it time to get on the plane yet?"

* * *

><p><em>"Flight 7495 from Los Angeles, California to St. Paul, Minnesota via United Airlines is now boarding."<em>

"Hey, Rhu," Logan greeted Rhuben nervously.

She put her carry-on bag over her shoulder and looked at him coldly. Logan flinched, he had only ever been given that look a couple of times and each time it made him want to curl up and die. He had hoped that she would have time to cool off by now, especially with the excitement of them being nominated for an ARIA still hanging around them. But he knew that she and her sister could hold a grudge for a really long time, even if they acted civilly towards you. So he wasn't sure what the outcome was going to be if he didn't at least try.

"I guess you're still mad at me," he said, rocking back on his heels.

"Really?" Rhuben asked sarcastically. She placed a hand to the side of her head. "What could have given you _that _idea?" She started to walk around him. "I mean, cause you only accused me of not being your friend." Logan made a face. "What do you want?" she asked each word deliberately with a sting on them.

"Well, it's just that I remember that you don't like planes," Logan continued as he walked beside her. "So, I was thinking that, maybe, we could sit next to each other and I could, you know, hold your hand to make sure that you're ok?" Rhuben stopped and looked at him.

"I'm sitting with Carlos and James," she said shortly before walking away from him.

"She can hold a grudge for a really long time," Sydney commented, appearing at Logan's side. He smiled, his dimples appearing in his cheeks, when Logan looked at him warily. "I wouldn't try to force talking to her if I were you," he added. "It'll just make things worse, give her time to think and then try to talk to her."

"But how is that supposed to help?" Logan asked, glumly, as everyone shuffled over to the gate to get their tickets checked. "I mean, we're here to take our minds off of the trial and everything and now my best friend isn't talking to me."

"Like I said," Sydney moved his DS into his hand. "Give her time." He suddenly felt a chill run down his back and he looked over his shoulder, his eyes darting around the airport. "He's not here; he's not here, Syd, calm down." He said to himself.

"Are you ok?" Logan asked.

"I'm fine," Sydney turned back to Logan. "I just thought I saw someone I knew." He shrugged. "I guess I was wrong. Let's get on the plane."

Everyone boarded the plane and settled down in their seats for the three hour flight. The Jacksons were happy about it as they were used to twenty hour flights, having to go back and forth from LA to Australia every six months, and they knew they wouldn't be experiencing as much jet lag as usual. Plus, a tiny part of them, not that they would admit it, were kind of excited to see what was so great about the place that Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Mrs. Knight, and Katie used to call home. They had heard so much about it that they wanted to see firsthand what their hometown was like.

The flight was pretty uneventful, up until there were a few fans that caught wind of the fact that there were famous people on board. Before they knew it, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had notebooks, napkins, pieces of paper, gum wrappers, and iPods shoved into their faces to be signed. Katie quickly jumped into action, charging each person ten dollars an autograph for those that were closer to her and further away from her mother. It was flattering to the guys at first, but then it became overwhelming when they continued to get things shoved into their faces. In the midst of the chaos, the four boys reached up and pushed the flight attendant call button and the flight attendants, thankfully, ushered the fans back to their seats.

Finally, the plane landed.

After a bit of taxing and waiting for other people to get off of the plane first, Big Time Rush, DarkElements, Katie, Mrs. Knight, Ronan, and Julius had officially arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota. They waited for about a half hour to make sure that they had all of their bags (carry on and suitcases) and headed outside to get a taxi.

"I hate this weather!" Patrick said loudly as he turned and started to root through his suitcase for a sweatshirt to put on. "How can anyone stand it?"

"It's so cold," Riley added her arms over her chest, shivering pathetically as she and her sister huddled together for warmth. Their jaws were shaking rapidly and their breath was visible in front of their faces.

"Don't be such a baby," Katie remarked, pulling a pair of ear-muffs over her ears. "It's not that cold." She looked around, as if she were thinking about something. "If I had to guess, I would ay that it's, like, thirty degrees." Her eyes lit up. "Then it'll snow."

"We haven't seen snow before," Noah remarked, his hands in the front pocket of his own sweatshirt. He tilted his head back to look at the sky.

"You haven't seen snow?" James asked, his eyes growing as wide as Carlos's, who was standing beside him.

"We've seen snow," Rhuben replied. "But we haven't seen a _snowfall_," she corrected him. "Trust me, we're not that pathetic." She turned to Ronan, who was standing with Julius, Brittany, and Mrs. Knight, looking as content as could be. "How are you not cold?" She demanded. "You've only lived in LA your whole life."

"I lived in Massachusetts too," Ronan reminded her. "For college. And," he pulled his hand up from his side, where he was holding onto a Styrofoam cup. "I have coffee to keep me warm." He gave her a smug smile, sticking his tongue out at her, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Excuse me," Riley said calmly. "But is there _any_ reason why we're standing out here, _freezing our asses off?!" _She was almost yelling at that point, but she still got the attention of some people that were walking out of the airport around them. She paused and looked at a man warily as he handed her a pair of gloves and then walked away. "What'd he just do that for?"

"People around here are pretty nice," Logan replied. "They're willing to help anyone that needs it."

"That explains it," Sydney deadpanned, kicking at the ground. He sniffed loudly, the tip of his nose and his cheeks were already red. The hood to his own sweatshirt was pulled up over his head, but it didn't seem to be keeping him as warm as he would have liked. "No wonder you all wouldn't leave us a lone."

"And look where that got us now," Katie reminded him, poking him in the cheek.

He turned to her with a smug look. "Out in the cold, freezing my toes off?" He guessed. Katie rolled her eyes and rubbed Sydney's shoulders, trying to keep him warm.

"I don't see you offering to keep us warm," Patrick mumbled from Katie's side.

"You didn't ask," Katie replied.

"Didn't know we had to," Noah mumbled back.

"Everyone relax," Mrs. Knight said, holding up her gloved hands. "We're just waiting for some taxi vans so we can get our stuff in them and then get in so we can get to the hotel and then to our own houses." She said soothingly. "Now, it's not that cold out here, and there's a hot chocolate dispenser over there," she pointed over her shoulder. "Does anyone want one?"

"Me! Me! Me!" Sydney stuck his hand into the air. "I'm so cold." He looked up as he felt something move over his ears and then gave Kendall a small smile, realizing that the blonde teenager had taken off his beanie and put it down onto Sydney's head. "Thanks K-Dawg."

"You're welcome," Kendall replied.

"Hey, I'll help you with that hot chocolate," Julius offered Mrs. Knight. "My brothers and sisters are really picky about the kind of hot chokkie that they drink," he looked over at his siblings, who smiled sweetly back at him. And I want to keep you from being frustrated if you get their order wrong."

"Thanks, Julius, that's really nice of you," Mrs. Knight said with a warm smile to him.

"You're welcome," Julius smiled back as he and Mrs. Knight started to walk off towards the dispenser. "Now, if you don't mind telling me, what's it like taking care of your two kids and then taking care of Logan, Carlos, and James as well, I can't expect it to be easy…"

"Ronan," Rhuben practically whined, moving into her friend's side. "Why didn't you just call the taxi's when we got off the plane?" She looked enviously at a woman as she got into a taxi and drove off. "That way I wouldn't have to worry about my fingers falling off."

"You can borrow my gloves," Logan offered to her. Rhuben glared back at him. Logan lowered his arm, putting his gloves back into his sweatshirt pocket. Carlos patted Logan on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

"So it's a little cold," Noah said to his sister. "So what if I feel like my fingers are going to fall off, my lungs are being stabbed by knives, and that I want to kill the person that decided that having cold weather was a _good _idea? At least we can have a vacation that can potentially be fun." He sounded sarcastic as he said it.

"Don't worry," Kendall gave a look of determination. "We're going to be sure that this is the best Christmas you guys ever have."

"Why is that when you say that," Sydney adjusted Kendall's beanie over his hears. "I don't feel comforted?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Sorry this was a short chapter, and it's more of filler, I'm getting used to being back on campus again. Plus it's a chapter that focuses on Sydney so I guess that makes up for it.

Just so you know the song 'Minnesota Girl' by Green Day is the only song that I could find that had Minnesota in the title and wasn't just Minnesota. It really has nothing to do with the tone of the chapter. Ha ha! :) Also, I thought it would make sense if Gustavo and Kelly _didn't _go to Minnesota with the guys, Katie, and DE.

I hope that you guys liked this chapter. I'll update again soon, next chapter has more of Mrs. Knight, Ronan, Julius, and Brittany. Also, as people have been waiting for it, you'll see Mrs. Diamond in the next chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	45. Emotionless

**.:Chapter Forty-Five – Emotionless:.**

_"__I'm **emotionless** right now. It's hard to describe how I'm feeling.__" ~Wes Scott Jr._

* * *

><p>"You can't possibly be serious," Ronan laughed as he walked into the sitting area of the hotel suite laughing when he spotted saw Julius, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney all huddled together on one couch, under a mountain of blankets and pillows. "It's not that cold in here."<p>

"Dude, there's gotta be a draft _somewhere_," Patrick said as he pulled the blanket tighter against him. Julius, on the end, made a sound and pulled the blanket back over him. "Because I don't think that I've ever been this cold in my entire life."

"I think you're exaggerating a little," Brittany commented, moving over to stand next to Ronan. She pulled down the sleeves of her light pink sweater. "If you were that cold, I think that you would be suffering from hypothermia or something." She shook her head. "And none of your body parts are even the slightest bit of blue."

"Do you want to check?" Julius grumbled, slouching down on the couch, making sure his feet didn't hit the floor.

Brittany turned to Ronan, a half smile on her face. "How do you put up with them? One or two at a time I could understand, but I couldn't imagine all six when they act like this." She commented, ignoring the cries of 'hey' that she got in reply.

"Well, unfortunately they all share the stubborn gene, so it wouldn't matter," Ronan said, laughing once more. "The only thing that I've learned that helps is if you either ignore them or just force them to do whatever it is that they _don't_ want to do. It usually works." He turned back to the Jacksons. "Speaking of, we came out here to spend the Christmas holidays with your friends, not to sit on a couch in a hotel room all day."

"Sorry," Rhuben narrowed her eyes at Ronan. "Last I checked you were the one that said that told them that we would go."

"Actually," Sydney piped up. "Riley was the one that said that we would go. Back when we were having Tradition, remember?" He, along with Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Julius all turned an accusing glance over at Riley. Sydney laughed. "It's probably the first time that she hasn't talked for an extended amount of time." She merely scowled and brought the blanket up to her chin.

"Hey guys," Carlos greeted as he, Logan, Kendall, Katie, and Mrs. Knight walked through the front door of the hotel suite. "We were just wondering if you wanted to-"

"SHUT THE DOOR!" Julius, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney shouted in unison. Carlos jumped and let out a loud scream at the shout and Logan flinched and quickly shut the door to the suite behind him.

"Wow, you guys must really hate the cold." Kate said, laughing as Carlos. She turned back the Jacksons and shook her head. "Seriously, you all are acting like a bunch of babies."

"That's what I said," Brittany nodded.

"Shut up." Sydney snapped and pulled the blanket around him tighter. Noah let out a sound of protest and grabbed on to the blanket. "Stop it! You're hogging all the warmth!"

"Um, what are you doing?" Carlos asked, having calmed down from being scared. He and Katie walked over to move in front of their friends, but Kendall and Logan stayed by the door. Logan didn't want to get any closer, just in case he would annoy Rhuben with his mere presence, and Kendall just looked like he didn't get a good night's sleep.

"Trying to stay warm, mate, what does it look like?" Julius replied as he raised his eyebrow. "I'm not sure if you're aware of it," He crossed his arms over his chest. "But we're from Australia _and_ California, we don't like the cold."

"Well, we were wondering if you guys wanted to come snowboarding with us," Katie said, placing her hands on her hips. "I mean, that's more fun sitting in a hotel suite all day, trying to stay warm and ordering room service." Her eyes lit up. "Actually, I think that having room service would be the best part of all of it."

"Don't even think about it, Katie," Mrs. Knight warned her daughter. "You already have enough food at home. If you want room service, get Kendall to bring it up to you." Kendall shot his mother a look but didn't say anything as Katie's smile widened at the idea.

"But snowboarding is so much fun," Carlos stated and stuck out his lower lip in a pout. "It's really cool and it's a great form of exercise." He added, hoping to entice Patrick. He was the one out of all of them that liked to do anything that kept him in shape and was probably the most active out of all of them. But this time, it seemed like he actually would prefer to sit on a couch all day. "I'll be your best friend if you come with us."

"Nice try," Noah smiled.

"Guys," Kendall finally spoke up. He adjusted his beanie and walked across the room so he was standing beside Carlos and Katie. Logan continued to hover by the door, but he at least moved a little closer. His gaze was still mostly on his feet though. "You can't just come out here with us and sit in the hotel all day." He rolled his eyes at Patrick's interjection of 'watch-us'. "Come on, you guys are going to have a lot of fun."

"You might as well go," Ronan finally spoke up. He thought for a moment, as if trying to think of a good excuse for them to leave. He wasn't that good at lying and when he was put on the spot, it made it that much harder to be convincing. "I'm going to be swamped here working on your website and stuff and Kacy said that she would help me." He looked over at Mrs. Knight, who nodded after a second of looking confused. "Besides, I need to talk to my publicist to see if they'd be willing to work with you to."

"Wait," Riley held up a hand. "We told you that we liked to do things-"

"Yourselves," Ronan interrupted. "I know. But there are times and there are rumors that may come around that you're not aware of, that would need to be debunked quickly. So it'll probably be a good idea if my publicist helps to get the word out if any other questions come up. You'll still be doing it yourselves, but he'll be a back up." He then gave them a serious look. "But I need peace and quiet to get my work done, so go with them. I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Fine," Julius stood up, pulling the blankets off of the couch. "C'mon guys," he turned to his siblings, who all groaned in annoyance. "Ronan deserve at least an hour away from your antics."

"You're forgetting that you're the one that usually gives us the dumb ideas that we go along with." Riley stated as she climbed off the couch, the sweatshirt that she was wearing falling down to her knees and the sleeves hanging over her hands.

"Hey, that's my sweatshirt!" Julius cried as he looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"What? You said that whatever you left behind when you went off to college we can have."

"Yeah, but I didn't say that you could purposely hide it so that you could have it."

Riley stuck her tongue out in reply as they all went to their rooms to get changed to go snowboarding. "So can we get going?" Rhuben snapped as she walked out of hers and Riley's shared room, pulling a knit hat over her hair. "The faster we get out of here the faster I can warm." She added with a less-than-pleased frown. "Where's James?" she asked.

"Oh, we're going to have to go and get him," Carlos replied. "You see, his mother doesn't really like the idea of snowboarding. She thinks that it's too dangerous. So we usually go and get him last so we can sort of force him to go."

"So why doesn't he just tell his mother 'no, I'm going to go snowboarding'?" Noah asked as he, Patrick, and Sydney walked out of their room, pulling on coats. He stopped when he saw the horrified looks on Katie's, Kendall's, Logan's, and Carlos's faces. "Did I say something wrong?" He looked concerned.

"No," Mrs. Knight shook her head. "It's just that…James's mother is really difficult to get along with."

"And you don't tell his mother, 'no'," Logan added dully.

Patrick snorted. "Obviously she hasn't met us," he commented.

"I was going to say the same thing," Rhuben agreed. "So, let's go get James and go snowboarding or whatever. I didn't leave my warm couch to sit around and talk about it."

* * *

><p>"Bye Mom, I'm going to go snowboarding." James called as he shuffled through the living room of his house, dragging a snowboard behind him. He was moving as fast as he could because he didn't want to get caught by his over protective mother.<p>

"James!" James froze right in front of the door, letting out a light sigh before he turned around to face his mother, Brooke Diamond. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was looking at him sharply, standing in the doorway to the living room. "You know how I feel about snowboarding. It's too dangerous."

"Mom," James said patiently. "It's just as dangerous as walking down the street when it just snowed." He tried to reason with her. "Besides, my friends are coming too, the Jacksons I told you about them, and they haven't ever gone snowboarding before." He started to walk over to his mother. "We kind of want to be sure that they have a good Christmas and we want them to see the kind of things that we do to have fun around here."

"So take them to see your high school," Mrs. Diamond replied, firmly. "I'm not letting you go out snowboarding. And that's that," she walked over to her son and placed her hands on his face. "I don't get to see you as much as I want and I don't want to risk getting a phone call that you fell and hurt yourself." He then smiled. "Besides, I don't want this handsome face to get hurt."

James raised his right eyebrow. "Thanks, Mom." He looked behind him as the doorbell rang. "That's probably the guys." He said and dropped his snowboard before walking over to the door and opening it. "Hey," he greeted his friends, opening the door wide so they could all come in."

"Hey," Kendall replied. He looked over at Mrs. Diamond. "I'm guessing that she won't let you out again?" He asked under his breath as the others headed inside.

"You guessed right," James replied. "I don't know about you, but I'm not going to get stuck having to take ballet lesson again."

"Why not?" Katie asked with a grin. "You guys did a good job and your legs looked _great _in those tights." She laughed as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all turned and glared at her. "I'm sorry, but it was the funniest thing that I had ever seen."

"So you must be James's little friends," Mrs. Diamond said as she turned to the Jacksons. They all stared at her, eyes wide, obviously knowing who she was. "I'm Brooke Diamond," she held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too," Riley replied and reached out, shaking Mrs. Diamond's hand. She blinked in surprise when she felt Mrs. Diamond's power grip, but didn't say anything about it. She then turned to James and smacked him on the arm. "You didn't tell us that your mom is Brooke Diamond." She said to him.

"Does it matter?" James shrugged in reply.

"Well, it certainly explains his obsession with fame," Noah said. He then shook his head, getting back to the conversation at hand. "Her cosmetics are really popular back home in Australia." He explained. "If you asked, like, ten girls, nine of them would wear her stuff."

"That's so nice to hear," Mrs. Diamond said with a warm smile. "Now, I'm sure that you all were about to head over to show your friends the school," she said, speaking to Kendall, Logan, and Carlos. "Because as I was telling James here, I didn't want him to go snowboar-"

"No, actually, we were going to go snowboarding," Rhuben interrupted. She rolled her eyes when Kendall, Logan, Carlos, Katie, and even James let out a light gasps. "Wha?" James grabbed onto her arm and pulled her into his side.

"You don't tell my mom 'no'," he whispered harshly into her ear.

"Looks like she just did," Patrick remarked. He turned back to Mrs. Diamond, who looked as stunned as James did. "No disrespect, Mrs. D, it's just that…" he thought for a moment and then looked defeated, his shoulders slumping. "It's our first time in Minnesota, and the guys wanted to be sure that we had a good Christmas, so they really want to take us snowboarding."

"We don't know why, since we hate the cold," Riley added, her upper lip curling slightly. "But they seem to be really adamant about it." She tilted her head to the side. "Besides, you don't want your son to break a promise, do you?"

"It wouldn't look good for his character," Rhuben added, mimicking Riley's head tilt. The twin girls looked right at Mrs. Diamond, who looked a little annoyed.

"All right," She said finally. "You all can go snowboarding, but" she held up her finger and looked over at her son. "Only if you agree to help me deal with inventory at the company later." James groaned. It was one of his least favorite things to do when he was home. But he was proud of his mother and everything that she did.

"Fine," he agreed. He moved forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks Mom," he said to her and grabbed his snowboard. "Come on; let's get out of here before she changes her mind." He quickly ushered his friends out of the door and down the street. "Whew, made it!"

"Just like old times!"Carlos declared a huge smile on his face. James, Kendall, and Logan burst out laughing at their friend's hyperness. He grabbed them into a group hug. "Doesn't it feel great to be back in Minnesota and go snowboarding again?"

"Being able to breathe would be great." Kendall gasped in reply as he shoved Carlos' hand off of his neck.

"What are we waiting for?" Noah asked, shoving his hands into his coat pockets, looking annoyed. "Let's go snowboarding so we can get back to the hotel."

* * *

><p>"Son of a bitch!" Rhuben growled as she hit the ground again, landing hard on her butt. She sighed as she lightly slid down the hill, collecting snow between her legs. James laughed as he easily boarded over to her, watching as she brushed snow off of her lap, unclipping her snowboard from her feet.<p>

"It's _not_ funny, Handsome!" Rhuben cried in frustration. "This is harder than it looks"

She looked up at the top of the hill, where her brothers were trying their runs down the bunny slope. Julius was easily boarding down the hill; Sydney was slowly skiing after him. Patrick and Noah were trying to pull each other to their feet, and Riley was just sitting at the top of the hill, talking to Kendall and Logan. It looked as though the two of them were trying to grab onto her arms and force her to get up to try and snowboard, but she continued to shake her head, trying to stay sitting down. Carlos and Katie were busy building a snowman.

"From my view, Beautiful, it is." James replied as he grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. "You were leaning back too far that time. Try keeping your balanced centered and you'll be fine." He thought for a moment. "Like you would if you were surfing."

"Easy for you to say," Rhuben huffed as she continued to brush snow off of her arms and legs. "You've grown up with the snow." She peered over at him with annoyance. "News flash, not everyone likes the stuff."

"That's true," James mused as he unclipped his feet from his snowboard. "But I'm sure you'll grow to love it." He smiled mischievously as he crouched towards the ground. His smile grew bigger as Rhuben continued on with her rant, not noticing that James was now standing up, grinning at her evilly, a hand clutching a snowball behind his back.

"What?" Rhuben narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Just thinking of a way that would make you like the snow better." He replied and shoved the snowball into her face.

"James!" Rhuben sputtered as she brushed the snow from her face as James burst out laughing. She reached down, quickly made a snowball, and tossed it into James' face himself, before the two broke out into a small snowball fight.

James turned, hearing a whoop, and brushed snow out of his face. "There goes Logan,"

Rhuben stopped what she was doing and shielded her face from the sun as she turned to see what was happening. He was standing up at the top of the hill, knees bent and a look of concentration on his face. Logan prepared himself before bending his knees and starting his descent down the hill, carving his way back and forth over the fresh powder that had fallen onto the ground. He aimed for the hill that was towards the bottom. He bent his knees and jumped as he reached the end of the jump and did a simple 180 before bending his knees to turn back, slowing his descent so he could climb back up the hill.

James turned back to Rhuben. "You guys still aren't talking?" he asked.

"Nope," Rhuben replied simply as she picked up her board. "And I don't pan on it."

"It's just…I guess that I don't see why you're so mad at him," James continued as he picked up his board and hurried after her. "He just wanted you to understand what he was feeling."

"And I wanted him to understand how I was feeling," Rhuben huffed in reply as she stopped walking. "I was accused of trying to replace him, accused of treating him like a _nothing_. And on top of that, I have to deal with the stupid trial coming up and the fact that Robert-"She quickly cut herself off, biting her lower lip as she looked at the ground.

"Robert what?" James asked gently.

Rhuben knew that she couldn't tell him what was going on, he would think that's eh was completely crazy. Anyone that was involved with the trial knew that he was ordered to stay a long ways away from her and her siblings. If he knew what they had been experiencing…things would just get worse. They had disrupted the boy's lives enough already, they didn't want to do it again.

"Nothing," Rhuben shook her head. "It's just that he's an idiot for wanting to countersue us when we have so much proof," she turned and continued to walk up the hill again.

James walked beside her for a few moments. He didn't say anything until they got closer to the top. "Piece of advice," He finally said. Rhuben looked sharply at him. "I know that you didn't ask for it," he gave her a pointed look. "Like you weren't exactly asking for advice on Dak back when you guys were sleeping over in our apartment." Rhuben continued to look at him. "Logan may be smart, but he can do dumb things sometimes. Just like the rest of us. But he always had a good reason behind it. Just like you guys."

The two reached the top of the hill and dropped their snowboards on the ground. "Son of a bitch!" They turned and smiled as Riley fell on her butt, like Rhuben had done before. She pouted as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate this place."

"There's no question that you guys are twins," James remarked.

"Yeah, for whatever reason, we get that a lot," Rhuben said sarcastically.

"You didn't even give it a chance," Carlos said as he stopped by Riley. She reached over and pushed him to the ground.

"Well, I'm tired of having snow all down my ass," She replied. Riley shook her head as she watched Kendall and Katie take another run down the hill. Patrick, Noah, Sydney, and Julius were right behind them, Patrick and Sydney jumping onto Noah's and Julius's backs, trying to knock them over as they went. "But as long as the guys are having fun, then I guess I can stick it out."

"That's the spirit," Carlos cheered as he grabbed Riley and pulled her up onto her feet.

"There's a reason we call you Care-Bear," Riley grunted as she was crushed in Carlos's hug.

James smiled. He was glad that they were finally starting to loosen up a little bit. He didn't think that they would get used to it. But they seemed to be progressing well. When Rhuben spoke, he turned back to her.

"For the record," she said, watching her brothers as well. "When people say that you're not bright…that's a lie."

* * *

><p>"Kendall," Mrs. Knight poked her head into her son's bedroom and knocked on the door frame. He didn't look at her. He was lying on his bed, his head pressed into his pillow, his arms underneath it and had been since he had gotten back from snowboarding earlier that day. "Are you ok, honey?"<p>

"Not really," Kendall muttered in reply. "I don't want to talk about it either."

Not wanting to sound like a cliché, he had spent most of the day thinking about Jo and their break-up. He had thought that going off to Minnesota for Christmas and leaving her behind to go to North Carolina to stay with her family would help keep his mind off of her. Even snowboarding with his friends didn't help; he had already woken up in a bad mood, not really wanting to go. But he and the guys had already agreed to do it, to make their friends feel welcome, so he couldn't back out. It wasn't only the break up that bothered him; it was still the trial coming up and the shock that his father was going to be a big part of it that was getting to him.

"Well, you don't have to if you don't want to," Mrs. Knight said. "But someone is here to see you."

"It can't be one of the guys, or else they would have just barged in here," Kendall commented.

Mrs. Knight smiled. "Well, they're in Katie's room; she wanted to show it off so badly, since we have to share one back at the PalmWoods." She went over to her son and gave him a kiss on the side of the head. "Feel better, honey."

"Thanks Mom," Kendall swung himself off of his bed and followed his mother out of the room, before turning and going to Katie's room. He was mildly surprised to see Katie talking animatedly to Riley as she stood with her hands in a leather jacket pocket.

"And this one," Katie was showing her a photo album. "Is when Kendall got stung by a bee on the nose." She pointed at it as she smiled up at Riley. "And then I drew circles around it to make it look like a bulls-eye."

"What are you doing here?" Kendall asked as he quickly moved across the room and grabbed the photo album from Riley's hands. He closed it and held it behind his back before turning to Katie. "And why are you showing her embarrassing pictures of me?"

"I'm your sister, it's my job," Katie replied. She then shrugged casually. "Besides, I already went through your embarrassing baby pictures."

Kendall gritted his teeth. "So why don't you show her _your_ embarrassing baby pictures?"

"Because _I _don't take embarrassing pictures," Katie replied, patting her brother on the arm. "That's how I got the good genes in the family." She then looked around Riley. "I got the brains too, if you couldn't tell." She added.

"From the fact that you're trying so hard to take over the economic world, I don't doubt it," Riley said with a half smile. "I like your room, by the way," She added, taking a quick look around. "Not too feminine. Reminds me of mine."

"Thanks," Katie beamed.

"I'm hiding these," Kendall announced, walking out of the room, holding onto the photo album tightly. He went back to his room and tossed it onto a random pile of clothes on the floor before flopping back down onto his bed.

"Has anyone ever told you that your hockey obsession is actually really creepy?" Riley asked as she stepped into his room, looking around. She walked over to a shelf that held medals and trophies. "These I understand, because you got them yourself, but all of the posters and pictures make me feel like I'm being watched."

"Did you want something?" Kendall asked, turning his head to the side. "My Mom said that you came by to see me."

"Well," Riley slowly took her eyes away from the hockey posters to look at him. "I just couldn't help but notice that you seemed kind of down when we were snowboarding today." She shrugged. "Is something up?"

Kendall gave her a funny look as he slowly sat up. He brought up his knees and looped his arms around them. He studied her for a moment. "Did Jo tell you that we broke up?" He finally asked.

"No," Riley shook her head. "But you just did." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Though I can tell that you don't really want to talk about that."

"Good guess," Kendall stretched out and rested on his back, lacing his hands behind his head.

He stared at the ceiling where he had a hockey poster taped up. He smiled a little, remembering the many times that he would stare at the poster and practically pray that he would play a good hockey game the next day. In fact, he used to pray to it whenever he hoped to get a good grade on a test or a paper, or whenever he was waiting for good news. In fact, when they had moved out of the house and over to LA to move into the PalmWoods, he begged his mom not to move any of his hockey stuff, just so he had something familiar to come back to whenever they were on vacation. But now, it just made him a little depressed.

He heard a rustling sound and lightly lifted his head, his eyebrows lowering when he noticed that Riley hadn't left like he had thought. She was standing by his desk, holding onto a notebook, reading what had been written in it.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"What's this?" She turned and shook the notebook at him. Kendall got off the bed and took it from her. "I don't usually snoop in people's rooms, but I was a bit curious." She admitted. When Kendall didn't say anything, she slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and lightly rocked back and forth. "It looks like a letter," she prompted.

"What are you doing here?" Kendall asked, focusing on the notebook in front of him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Riley asked. She then held her hands up defensively. "Ok, your mom said that you seemed kind of down and she brought it up to Ronan. When we got back from snowboard, which my ass is _still_ bruised from by the way, he thought that it would be a good idea if one of us came to talk to you. And after I had told them about our conversation when we were at the hockey rink," Kendall gave her a sharp look and she kept going. "No worries, I didn't tell them everything, he suggested that I come by and see if you wanted to talk."

"Oh," Kendall studied the notebook again. He looked at the words that he had written and remembered how he had felt when he wrote them. The same way that he had felt when he had first, finally, openly admitted his feelings. With a sigh, he turned it around and handed it back to Riley. "It _is_ a letter." He said as she took it and looked at him curiously. "Mom thought that it would be a good idea if Katie and I wrote a letter to our Dad, but not really send it to him, just so we could get our feelings out."

"Letter therapy," Riley nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"You did it too?" Kendall asked.

"Mhm," she walked across the room, lightly smacking the notebook against her open palm. "Shortly after our parents…passed away we were suggested to write letters to them or about them about how we were feeling with everything." She paused. "We don't really like to talk about our feelings, as you guys have probably noticed by now. We, as a joke, call it Emotiaphobia; being afraid of our feelings. So being able to put it out in a letter helped us to express our emotions without worrying about someone else reading it."

"Did it help?" Kendall asked.

"Do the names _Sonny, Believe_, _One Year, Six Months, Meet You There, The Heart Never Lies, View From Heaven, Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?), _or _Iris_ mean anything to you?" Riley turned back to Kendall, her eyes burning into his.

He shrugged. "Yeah," he said slowly, not really getting her point. "They're all songs of yours."

"And they're also letters or inspired by letters that we have written to our parents or about our parents to help us cope." Riley looked down at the notebook that was in her hands and tossed it to Kendall. "And I think that you could do it with this too."

"You think this can be a song?" Kendall asked skeptically as he sat down on his bed. "I don't think so." Riley sat down on the edge of his bed, her feet still on the floor.

"I've been working on a song for the 'Black' part of our CD," Riley said slowly, pulling her phone out of her pocket. "I don't think we've told you guys, but what we decided for our new CD is that we want it to be a deluxe edition, entitled Black and White." She hesitated for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Like I said, there was a song that I was working on for a while and this can really help, if you don't mind me using it."

"Whatever," Kendall shrugged.

"So let me see if it'll work," Riley leaned over the notebook and pushed a button. A melody on an acoustic guitar played for a few moments and she nodded lightly while she mouthed the words to his letter. "Yeah, this should work." She pushed the notebook back to him before getting off the bed and walking over to the black acoustic guitar that sat in the corner of his room. "May I?"

"Go ahead," Kendall waved a hand and she picked it up, walking it back over to him. He reached over to his night stand and picked up his wallet. "Do you need a guitar pick?"

"Nope," Riley sat cross-legged on the end of Kendall's bed and put the guitar in her lap, balancing it. She then reached up into the base of her right pigtail and pulled out a guitar pick." Kendall looked at her funny. "What? Rhubes can wear drumsticks in her hair and I can't put my guitar pick in there?" She asked, slightly annoyed.

"I've just never seen it done before," Kendall replied. He took his notebook. "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Sing it," Riley said. "You already heard the melody, I'm going to play it on here," she drummed her fingers on his guitar. "I'll show you it'll make a good song, along with what I already have for it." She noticed Kendall's hesitation. "Trust me."

"Do _you_ trust me?" Kendall returned.

Riley studied him for a long moment. She would say that she was friends with the guys; she did spend about 24/7 with them working on their music and their band. They _did_ invite her and her siblings to their hometown to try and have a good holiday after a long time of living in pain and fear. They did work hard to be sure that they were happy after the past month's recent events. But there were still a lot of things that they couldn't tell them.

"About as far as I could throw you," She replied finally. Kendall seemed to take the answer in stride, for he cleared his throat and raised the notebook to his face so he could sing it when she instructed him to. After tuning the guitar for a few seconds, Riley nodded over to him as she started to play.

"Hey Dad, I'm writing to you," he sang softly. "Not to tell you, that I still hate you, just to ask you how you feel; and how we fell apart. How this fell apart." He looked up at Riley and she nodded again urging him to continue. "Are you happy out there in this great wide world? Do you think about your son? Do you miss your little girl? When you lay your head down, how do you sleep at night? Do you even wonder if we're all right? But we're all right, we're all right."

Riley leaned back slightly as she moved her right hand, her strumming hand, up and down the strings faster, moving into what sounded like the chorus of the song. "It's been a long hard road without you by my side. Why weren't you there all the nights that we cried? You broke my mother's heart; you broke your children for life. It's not okay, but we're alright. I remember the days, you were a hero in my eyes, but those were just a long lost memory of mine. I spent so many years learning how to survive. Now, I'm writing just to let you know that I'm still alive."

Kendall dropped his notebook to his lap, having finished the letter that he had written. Only part of the song had lied, he did hate his father. He couldn't and probably would never get over the feeling of being abandoned. At least he was realistic enough to know that he wasn't going to get over it any time soon. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when Riley kept going, the fingers on her left hand moving over the frets easily.

He noticed a slightly annoyed look on her face and guessed that it was because the neck of his guitar was so big, but her hands were small, causing the gap of her finger formations to be a bit more difficult. But as she started to sing, the annoyed look went away and a half haunted, half angry look filled her face instead. He noticed at that moment that she and her siblings had that look a lot when they were singing something that had to do with their past or the abuse that they had gone through.

"The days I spent so cold, so hungry," she had her head turned to the side so some of her fringe and her red strand of hair slightly covered her face, but he could still see the pain. "Were full of hate, I was so angry. The scars run deep inside this tattooed body. There's things I'll take to my grave. But I'm okay, I'm okay." She sang and then looked up at Kendall again, lightly nodding her head once more, letting him know that she wanted him to join her in singing this time.

"It's been a long hard road without you by my side. Why weren't you there all the nights that we cried? You broke my mother's heart; you broke your children for life. It's not okay, but we're all right. I remember the days, you were a hero in my eyes, but those were just a long lost memory of mine. Now, I'm writing just to let you know that I'm still alive, yeah, I'm still alive."

She slowly stopped playing there. "That's all that I had," She said after a second. "The verse that I sang, that's all that I had come up with before I read that letter of yours."

"It sounded really good," Kendall admitted.

"I don't see why you're so surprised," Riley said. "You guys are all musically inclined, and if you write from your heart, like that," she pointed at the notebook. "You can write any song that you want for your CD."

"I can't think of anything else that would go to the rest of the song though," Kendall said with a frown.

"Well, that's the point of songwriting," Riley said as she gently put his guitar on the floor. "I'm going to take a cue from you and say it's kind of like baseball." She pushed her pigtails over her shoulders. "You know how pitchers always look at the batter and then they look away for a moment, and then look back at the batter, yeah?" She cracked her knuckles. "Well, it's a focusing thing. If you focus, focus, focus on the pitcher and try to strike him out you won't. But if you focus on the picture look away for a moment to regroup and then take the pitch, you'll strike him out.

"So if you take a break from songwriting or music in general for a while, and then go back to it later, you'll be able to," Riley made the sound of a baseball bat hitting a baseball by clicking her tongue in the side of her mouth. "Knock it out of the park."

Kendall laughed. "Do I sound that annoying?" He asked, running a hand through his hair.

"You have no idea, Hockey-Head."

* * *

><p>"Sit wherever," Kendall waved and arm towards the couches and arm chairs in the living room. He was embarrassed for a moment, knowing that her house and apartment were probably a lot better looking than his house was. They had done pretty well with his mother's waitressing job and his job at Sherwood's. But having lived in the PalmWoods for so long and feeling like LA was his home, he was starting to notice how his life had changed. "Do you want something to drink?" He turned to Riley and then paused as he thought for a moment. "Well, actually, I think we only have water. Mom doesn't have a lot of soda around because Carlos and Katie love it and-"<p>

"Water's fine," Riley said with a wave of her hand. She looked around the room as she lightly rubbed her right wrist. "I like your place," she added as she looked at the pictures that were hung up. "Looks to be the perfect size for you guys, not too big and not too small."

"Thanks," Kendall said as he walked to the kitchen and over to the refrigerator. "I like it just fine. I just didn't notice how plain it was since we got to the PalmWoods."

"Anyone that has a swirly slide in their apartment would say so," Riley said as she turned back towards the TV. She leaned forward and picked up a DVD case. "_Jaws?_" she asked, her eyebrows disappearing under the hair that fell into her face. "Huh, I've never seen it before." She turned the case around to read the back of the box.

"Really?" Kendall made a sound of amusement as he walked back into the living room and handed her a glass of water. "You've never seen Jaws?"

"I've been too busy to watch movies are regularly as I want," Riley explained. "So on the road we typically just choose something from Netflix and watch it on our laptops when we get the chance. When we're at Ronan's apartment we're always catching up on shows that we missed to watch movies, though we try to have a 'movie night' once a week." She shrugged. "I think we're some of the only people on the planet that haven't seen it before."

"Wait until you see the special effects," Kendall joked, starting to loosen up a little bit. He picked up the remote and started to go through the DVD menu options as well as the previews of the movie. He flopped down onto the couch and leaned back as the movie started. The movie wasn't as scary as he remembered it, but he couldn't help but notice that as the first shark attack came, Riley shrank back in her seat and briefly closed her eyes. "Can you believe how fake that-"Kendall stopped and looked at her. "Are your eyes closed?"

"No." Her eyes immediately snapped back open, though she was grimacing as the images on the TV continued to play. Her hands were twisting in her lap and she continuously raised her hand to brush her red strand of hair behind her ear as it continued to come lose.

"You're scared," Kendall stated, smiling.

"Am not, it's just a stupid movie." Riley twirled her red strand of hair around her finger. She tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. "Though I'm not sure what'll actually get me back into the water now." She said as an afterthought.

"Do you want me to turn it off?" Kendall picked up the remote and held it in the air, his finger over the 'POWER' button.

"No." Riley dropped her hands to her lap and brought her feet up onto the couch.

A few minutes later, he said, "you can open your eyes now." Riley shifted in her seat, a scowl on her face. "You know that Spielberg directed this? I saw a documentary on him once. He was only twenty-something at the time, and it was the second film he directed. He wrote most of the-"

"Shut up, Kendork." Riley leaned forward, bringing her knee up to her chest. Now that the scary part was over she wanted to hear what was going on.

"Yes ma'am," Kendall chuckled to himself.

They finished the film in silence and Riley found herself wincing at several more scenes of the movie. When the credits rolled, Kendall kicked in his footrest and shut off the DVD player.

"Ay, it's gonna take me days before I go into the ocean again," Riley groaned, rubbing her hands over her face. "As an Aussie ya quickly learn that you share the water with all of the creatures that live in it, sharks included. The thought of me dipping my feet in any water that doesn't have a cement bottom is gonna kill me."

"I didn't know that you were such a chicken," Kendall remarked as he replaced the DVD into its box. He kept his head down so his hair casted a shadow over his face, but his curling lips gave him away that he wanted to start laughing.

"Shut _up_, Kendall!" Riley growled.

Kendall laughed. "You can pick the movie next time," he offered.

"Deal," Riley then rubbed her hands together, grinning evilly. "Maybe a romantic comedy…" Kendall groaned, tilting his head back. "You can close your eyes through the scary parts, you dag." She taunted.

"Chick flicks are scary all the way through." Kendall said in a lofty tone.

"Ha! I happen to know for a fact that you _love_ chick flicks." Riley said, pointing at him, her eyes flashing. She looked at her watch and got up, stretching her arms over her head. "I got to get going back to the pub or Ronan's gonna freak."

"Pub?" Kendall repeated. He tried to think about what it could mean. "Pub….uh…."

"Hotel," Riley informed him. "Its slang for hotel, while on the flip-side, hotel if slang for a pub with beer."

"Right," Kendall said, feeling as if he would never catch on. "Hold on," he held up a finger. "I thought you said that you guys didn't have a curfew," Kendall reminded her as he walked her to the door. "At least, you made fun of _us_ for Mom giving us a curfew on school nights."

"I don't," Riley agreed. "But he has a habit of waiting up to make sure that we get back ok." She gave an exaggerated sigh as she shrugged. Kendall opened the front door and she stepped outside "And considering he knows how much you _bore_ me, I'm sure that he's waiting for the police to appear at the door."

Kendall laughed.

"Good to see that I put you in a better mood," Riley remarked, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets. "That was the whole idea. Thanks for letting me hang out." She reached out her right hand, Kendall looked back at her. "Dude, you came up with this stupid handshake," she pointed out. Kendall smiled and put out his right first, pressing his knuckles against hers before the two of them twisted their wrists up and gave each other a thumbs up. "Later." She gave him the peace sign before turning on her heel and starting to walk back to the bus stop.

Behind her, Kendall mimicked the music from the movie that warned of an impending attack.

Riley didn't bother to turn around.

The staccato music continued, cutting through the darkness.

"Give it a rest, will ya?" Riley called.

Her only answer was a distant chuckle.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I hope that you guys liked the chapter, it seemed kind of weird to me, but I'm glad that it was finally put up. I had the idea for it for a while after listening to the song a bit and then looking at the two verses of the song. The next chapter will be up soon, only five left!

Cheers,

-Riles


	46. It's Been a While

**.:Chapter Forty-Six – It's Been a While:.**

_"And now that we're here, it's so far away, and I feel like I can face the day. I can forgive, and I'm not ashamed to be the person that I am today" ~Staind_

_"What I really meant to say, is I'm sorry for the way I am. I never meant to be so cold, never meant to be so cold." ~Crossfade_

* * *

><p>"This is the school that you went to?" Noah questioned as he cocked his head to the side. He snorted as he looked up at the high school. It was like any generic American high school that he could think of, with people milling about, talking and laughing with each other. The only differences that he could see between the school that he went to and this one was that they weren't wearing uniforms and that their lockers were all inside. "It looks kind of small." He added as he turned towards Big Time Rush, wrinkling his nose. "Is it a public school?"<p>

"Yeah, what kind of school did you go to before you were home schooled?" Carlos asked as he turned to the Jacksons, who were looking up at the school front with odd expressions on their faces. He bent down and picked up a pile of snow, rolling it in his hands.

"We went to a private school," Patrick replied and stifled a snort. "Uniforms and all." He rolled his eyes.

"You're forgetting that even if we didn't go to a private school, we'd still have to wear uniforms, right?" Sydney reminded his brother.

"It still sucked," Patrick justified. He turned to Katie, who was standing beside him. "What school did you go to?" He rubbed his red nose before burying his hands further down into the pockets of his coat.

Katie let out a sigh as a wry smiled crossed her face. "A middle school down the road." She replied and rolled her eyes. "Not much different from this one and both of them had really crappy sports teams." She then gave an evil smile. "But that didn't keep me from being bored."

"You sound a lot like us," Rhuben remarked with half smile.

"Knowing you guys, I'm guessing that's not a good thing," Kendall dead-panned although he had an amused smile on his face.

Carlos couldn't help but laugh. It was true. Both of their schools had a rule that you had to participate in one sport through the whole year. He, James, Kendall, and Logan were on their school's hockey team and even though they enjoyed playing it, they didn't like that it seemed to be an obligation rather than being able to play it for him. But the four of them never really cared, the fact that they were able to play hockey whenever they wanted was a huge dream for them, especially Kendall, whose dream is to become a player of the NHL. Long stretch, but they all had different dreams that they wanted to pursue. It helped that he ended up becoming the youngest person in the history of the school to become a hockey captain, when he was fourteen and a freshmen. He took that title proudly and instead of letting it all go to his head, he shared the glory with his best friends.

"Well, aren't we going to go inside and see what's been going on?" Katie interrupted the silence.

"Last I checked, that was the reason that you guys brought us here," Patrick watched as his breath fogged in front of his face. "And-"

"-I don't feel like standing out here all day." Noah finished his sentence.

Carlos looked over at them and smiled sympathetically.

"What are you grinning about?" Sydney asked, poking Carlos in the side, getting his attention.

"Nothing," Carlos replied, stifling his smile. "Nothing at all." He rocked back and forth on his heels. "I just find it so funny that you guys are always complaining about it being so cold. It's really funny."

Before he knew it, he held his hands up over his face as Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney all blasted him with a bunch of snowballs that they made quickly. Kendall, Logan, James, and Katie laughed hysterically as they hit him from all sides.

"Ow! Ow! Ok, I'm sorry! Stop!" Carlos cried. He slowly dropped his arms as the Jacksons stopped throwing snowballs at him. Not even two seconds after they stopped, he felt something wet and fluffy slap him in the back of my neck. He flinched from the sudden contact and whip around in the direction it came from. Kendall was standing several feet away from him, holding a second snow ball in his hands, Katie at his side.

"You didn't say we were starting an actual snowball fight!" Carlos said.

"We're starting!" Kendall yelled back.

Everyone split up and started to get their own ammo at that point. Patrick ran towards a row of hedges, trying to shield himself as James continually shot snow balls after him, making new ones as fast as he could. Patrick grabbed a heap of snow in his hands, mashed it together as best as he could, and threw it back behind him.

"Is that the best you got?" he shouted, seeming to have an unlimited supply of snow balls already prepared to attack me with.

Patrick started to throw some back, but then laughed when Riley and Rhuben nailed James on the side of the face with their own snowballs, distracting James long enough so that Patrick could hit him in the chest. Sydney came up behind James and smacked him in the back with his own snowball before he turned around and whipped one at Logan and Katie hitting them both. Laughter and shrieks filled the air as the group of friends continued with their snowball fight.

"Oof!" Patrick was hit in the face with a snowball, causing him to fall onto this back.

He looked up at the sky as he wiped the rapidly meting powder off of his face, blowing it off of his lips as well. When he finally managed to clear it away, Robert was standing above him, glaring down at him. Patrick opened his mouth to scream, not that he was really scared, but that he was startled to see him in front of him, and rolled to the side as he bent down, both hands poised to grab his neck. Patrick scrambled to his knees and quickly stood up, turning around just in time for Katie to hit him in the face with a snowball.

"Katie!" Patrick pushed the snow out of his face. He laughed when he saw Riley and Rhuben single-handedly beating Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James with their own snowballs.

"You see what happens when you turn your back in a snowball fight?" Katie smirked.

Patrick rolled his eyes. "You cheated."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Katie said with a sweet smile. She paused when she got a good look at Patrick's face. "Hey, are you ok?" she asked. "You look like something's bothering you."

"I'm fine," Patrick said, shaking his head. He and Katie walked over to Riley and Rhuben, who had then been joined by Noah and Sydney. "Hey guys, I think you can give them a break now." He said with a laugh, watching as the guys continued to cower in fear."

"That's so pathetic," Logan said as he lowered his arms and he, James, and Carlos got to their feet. "They don't even like snow and they still beat us at a snowball fight." He looked over at Rhuben, clearly still trying to get back in her good graces. "You guys have good aim though."

Rhuben merely closed her fist around the snowball that she was still carrying in her hand, tossing the snow to the ground. She jumped when Carlos suddenly let out a loud gasp and started to grin like an idiot. "Sorry," he apologized. "I just noticed…I finally made them laugh!" He said.

There was a blanket of silence that fell over them at that. Carlos's smile faded and he gave a sheepish grimace as Kendall, Logan, and James all turned to him. Carlos shrugged and put his hands back into the pockets of his coat.

"Ok," Kendall spoke up. "So, let's go inside." He turned and led the way inside the school. A second later they were enveloped by students that filled the hallway. Noah looked around at all of the students. _I wonder if they enjoy going to school as much as I enjoy working on my music. _As he continued to look around, he looked up and frowned when he saw a familiar looking person in the crowd. It was Robert.

"Dad?" Noah muttered to himself as he slowly stopped walking along with his friends.

"Noah," Katie placed a hand on Noah's arm. "Noah, is something wrong?"

"No," Noah replied and shook his head before giving a brief smile. "I'll be right back though," he started to back away. "Just uh," He held his hands up. "Gotta go to the shit-house." Sydney gasped loudly and then held out his hand.

"Potty mouth jar," he said, wiggling his fingers.

"Sorry, I meant the dunny." Noah corrected himself. With that, Noah pushed sideways through the crowd of people as he tried to get closer. As Noah pushed forward he could see it now, that it was Robert was looking at him with a mixture between a smirk and a smile.

Noah was hit in the side and stumbled a little bit. Quickly catching his balance, he apologized to whoever had bumped into his and looked up again.

Robert was gone.

_God_, Noah rubbed his forehead. _You're losing it_. He waited a few more minutes before pushing his way back through the crowd, back over to his friends.

"Did you find the bathroom ok?" James asked, reaching out and clasping Noah's shoulder, shaking him lightly.

"Yeah," Noah replied. He then looked thoughtful. "Hey JD, if you see something that's not there does it mean that you're going crazy?"

"No," James raised an eyebrow. "Now that I'm aware of anyway. It happens to the best of us." He thought for a second. "Why? What did you see?"

"It was nothing important," Noah replied.

"It's Big Time Rush!" a girl sudden shouted. "It's the guys! They're back!" The boys stared as a group of people rushed over to the four of them, asking them what it was like in Hollywood, if they could sign this poster, and how it felt to be back in Minnesota.

"We missed this place a lot," James was saying, causing Carlos to roll his eyes, knowing how much James was loving the attention. The large smile on his face was unmistakable. "But it's always nice to be able to come back home."

"What's Gustavo Rocque like?" a jock asked, gripping onto a football. "Is he really as nasty as they say?"

"That and more," Logan stated, laughing nervously. "Back in LA, he seemed to be everywhere, and he pushed us really hard. But it was worth it, we're working on our second right now. It should be out over the summer. Will you guys buy it?"

There was a unanimous reply that everybody was going to buy the CD, but it was soon masked by the sound of groans as a bell rang throughout the corridor. The Jacksons jumped and looked around wildly when they heard that sound as the students began to rush off to class.

"What was that?" Sydney asked, his wide eyes looking around in shock.

"That was just the bell," Kendall replied as he chuckled a little bit, raising his eyebrows. "What?" He moved his hair out of his face. "You guys didn't have a bell system at your school?" Rhuben shook her head.

"No," she replied. "We just had clocks and whenever it said the right time to leave, we left." She shrugged and then looked annoyed. "We got a lot of detentions that way."

"Especially when you were able to clean out teacher's rooms for detention," Riley added.

"Cleaning is fun?" Logan repeated, looking unconvinced. "To you? Riley Jackson? Are you feeling ok?" He placed his hand on her forehead, and she quickly shoved his hand away.

"It was only fun because we were able to find out things about other students that no one else knew." Rhuben explained in a condescending tone, her upper lip curling. She lightly rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she turned away from Logan, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And she's not the only one," Patrick agreed. "There was a lot of stuff that I figured out about the most popular kids in school." He turned to his siblings. "Did you know that Greg Pierce has ADHD?"

"That would make sense as to why he was laughing so much that one year." Sydney murmured to himself. He then turned back to their friends. "Keep in mind that this was before we were homeschooled." He added. "But whenever we were back home for the six month break and we had some time off, instead of being homeschooled we would go back to our school. So we did a little bit of both, but mostly were homeschooled."

"So, are we going to get the grand tour or are we just going to go straight to the ice rink?" Noah added as he raised an eyebrow. "You guys mentioned that you wanted us to see where you all used to play hockey."

"No doubt it was just an excuse to play it," Riley said, causing Kendall to nudge her in the side.

"I don't know, a school is a school," James stated, pretending to think about it. But he already had made up his mind. When it came to hockey, nothing stood in between him playing the sport. Except for the latest Cuda products. "Well, he shrugged. It's for nerds so I have my decision." He grinned as Logan rolled his eyes, shoving him on the shoulder.

"And I really want to play hockey." Kendall said with a pleading look on his face. Riley nudged him back.

"Sure thing, Kendall," Carlos agreed as cheerful as ever. His fingers were twitching at his sides and he was bouncing on his toes. "You aren't the only one who wants to play."

"Oh great," Riley said with a half smile. "You guys get to beat each other's brains out and we just get to stand around and freeze to death. What _fun_."

"Well, I could warm you up another way." James offered.

Riley smiled warmly in reply. Though Logan could tell it wasn't a real smile. After knowing her and her sister when they were younger and looking at them again for a while now, he knew that they only time they really smiled was when their eyes lit up and they were shinning. He didn't think he saw her smile for real in a long, long time. "Thanks for the offer," she replied. "I'll keep that in mind for the next time that there's a snowstorm in Los Angeles."

"I'm going to hold you to it," James said, putting his arm around her shoulders.

* * *

><p>"C'mon Katie, you've been on skates before." Kendall laughed as he watched his sister wobble across the ice.<p>

She planted her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out at her brother. They were at the local skating rink, much to the boys' delight. The Jacksons were standing at the side of the rink, lacing up their own skates.

"Do you know how long it's been?" she screeched, trying to keep her balance, arms wind milling as she tried to keep her balance. "Besides, I'm not the one that disappears off to the ice rink every time I get home sick."

"That's because you _don't_ get homesick." Kendall pointed out as he staked over and grabbed his sister's arm. "You're too busy trying to make LA bankrupt."

"C'mon guys, you can't just sit there all day." Carlos declared as she skated up, holding onto a hockey stick. He lightly hit Kendall in the chest with a gloved hand. "C'mon dude, let's play." He motioned over to James and Logan, who were taking shots on an empty net.

"All right." Kendall replied with a smile and moved his hockey mask over his face.

"Uh, Kendall? Help?" Katie called as she started to wobble a little bit more. Just before she fell Kendall skated back around and grabbed onto her arm. Katie let out a breath of relief. "Thanks. I was worried that my butt was going to make a permanent imprint on the ice."

"Better than cracking your head open." Kendall replied with a smile.

"Are you guys coming?" Katie asked, turning to the Jacksons. She watched as they slowly made their way onto the ice, wincing as they fell down almost immediately. "Oh," she skated over to them. "You don't know how to skate do you?" She asked.

"Does it look like it?" Sydney asked as he laid on his back, staring at the sky. He sat up, shaking out his hair. "I didn't think it was possible for me to dislike anything as much as I dislike the snow, but I think this is it." He said, holding out his hands. Katie grabbed onto him and hauled him to his feet. She then moved onto the others to help them up. Sydney fell again as soon as he was on his feet. "Ouch."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," Katie said with a laugh. "It's not that hard," she added, lightly skating backwards.

"Easy for you to say," Patrick said as he took a wobbly step forward. He looked up, watching as James managed to skate around Kendall and Logan and get a shot in goal. "Nice job, JD! Whoa!" Patrick twisted to the side and fell again, this time, bringing his siblings down with him.

Katie covered her face with her gloved hands as they hit the ground. "Ouch, are you guys ok?" She asked as they sat up again.

"Fine," Noah managed to say. Katie hauled them back to their feet. "Never better, really." But he didn't look so convincing.

"Are you sure that you guys are ok?" Katie asked as the others started to get up, skating around a little bit. They held their hands out at their sides, making sure that they didn't move too far away from each other in case they needed to grab onto anything if they fell. "You don't really seem into hanging out today."

"It's just," Noah hesitated. "Christmas coming up ya know? It's weird, since we've never really had a good one." He corrected himself. "I mean, they weren't bad, but they weren't great."

"Why do you think Kendall brought you all out here?" Katie replied. "I mean, it was really Carlos's idea, but they all want to be sure that you guys have a good time out here." She added, putting her hands on her hips. "Me too," she added.

Noah stayed silent as he slowly skated over to Patrick, who was waiting for him. Katie skated around the rink once, watching her brother and his friends as they played a fast-paced game of hockey. She could see that they were already getting really into it, grunting and shoving each other the best that they could, hoping to make a goal against each other. She skated back up to Patrick and Noah.

"Subject change," she said, moving to their side, skating slower so she could talk to them. "How's your guys' music coming?"

"You know that you can talk to us about something else other than music to keep our mind off of the trial, you know," Patrick pointed out.

"I know, but music is like, the, go-to thing with you guys," Katie replied.

"We have a few songs done" Noah said. "Since we're doing a deluxe edition CD, we have more songs than ever that we're doing."

"But it's cool, because we already had so many that were demos that we wanted to use on other CDs and couldn't," Patrick continued. "So we can look at those old ones and then work on some new ones if we wanted to."

"Also, this CD, or CDs, each of us have at least one song that we have the vocals to ourselves, and then there's two songs where all five of us have the vocals for the whole song," Noah wobble and fell down onto his stomach. Katie and Patrick helped him back up. "So it's different from or other CDs where it's typically a duet or a trio or all five taking turns on the song."

"Cool," Katie smiled. "I can't wait to hear it."

"We have to get through the trial first," Patrick reminded her. Noah elbowed him in the side and Patrick reached over and hit him on the back of the head, causing the two to give brief smiles. "Can't forget that, ya know?"

Katie watched the exchange before turning to her brother. "Hey guys," She called, skating over to them, causing them to stop their play. "How about you help teach the Jacksons how to play hockey?" She suggested. "I mean, they may watch it on TV, but it'll be more fun to play it first hand, right?"

* * *

><p>"Ow," Rhuben winced. She pulled up the bottom of her shirt as she looked at the bruise that was forming on her hip. "That bruise is going to be there for a while." She moved her mouth to the side, dropping the bottom of her shirt.<p>

"A bit of ice and rest and you'll be fine," Kendall replied as he placed a hand on Rhuben's shoulder and smiled at her. "But you made a lot of progress today, Benny." The group was walking back to Kendall's house after he had invited them over for some hot chocolate. They were all walking slowly, slightly sore from trying to teach the Jacksons how to play hockey. They spent more time falling onto the ice than actually playing or skating.

"Benny?" Rhuben repeated, her nose wrinkling.

"Yeah," Carlos nodded. "You guys came up with nicknames for us, so we thought that we could come up with some for you. I mean," he pointed over to James and Logan. "James already calls you Beautiful and Logan had one for you since he met you, so Kendall came up with Benny." He then thumped himself on the chest. "I thought I would be original and just call you, Rhubes." He reached out and mussed Rhuben's hair, causing her to laugh and shove him away from her.

"What about me?" Sydney asked, his eyes lighting up. Though he had never said it out loud, he looked up to the guys just as much as he looked up to his siblings. "Do I have one too?"

"You're Little Man," Kendall replied, giving him a high-five.

"Awesome!" Sydney replied, giving each of the guys and Katie a high-five in return. "That's a cool one." Then his smile faded and he looked over at his siblings, who seemed to have the same looks on their faces.

Carlos frowned. No matter what anyone said or did to make them feel comfortable, there would always be that small chance that he would have to watch their walls go back up.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I'm so sorry the chapter with Patrick and Noah was so short. I haven't written about them or Sydney a lot and that's why they usually get the short end of the stick. But they have big parts in _Words, Hands, Hearts_ and _Havoc_ (that's coming up soon) as well as _Windows Down_ to make up for it.

I hope that you guys liked this chapter anyway.

Cheers,

-Riles


	47. If It Means A Lot To You

**.:Chapter Forty-Seven – If It Means A Lot To You:.**

_"It means a lot in my business and it's a wonderful feeling to be recognized for what you have done over a lifetime, but I didn't go crazy." ~Regis Philbin_

* * *

><p>Logan raised his fist and knocked on the door to the suite. He looked at his watch, hoping that it wasn't too late for someone to answer the door. He held his breath and waited. No answer. He raised his fist and knocked again, this time a little louder. It wasn't until he heard footsteps going towards the door that he hoped that it wasn't Ronan. He had never seen the older man mad, and wasn't sure if he got pissed when he was woken up.<p>

_Maybe this wasn't a good idea. _Logan turned to leave when he heard the door open. He let out a breath when he saw Riley standing in front of him, peering at him through her glasses.

"Couldn't sleep?" she guessed.

"Could you?" Logan replied.

Riley gave a half smile. "I never sleep," she replied and then rubbed her face, looking serious. "What's up?"

"Uh," Logan rocked on his heels. "Can I talk to Rhu?"

"Don't blame me if she bites your head off," Riley said as a warning before disappearing from view. Logan only waited a few minutes before Rhuben appeared at the door. Like her sister, she was wearing glasses, but he could tell from the look on her face that he had actually woken up her.

"It's the middle of the night," she said quietly. "What do you want?"

"Actually," Logan looked down at his watch to be sure that he had the time right. "It's after midnight. It's Christmas." Rhuben slowly blinked at him.

"And you woke me up to tell me that?" She asked.

"No," Logan shook his head. "I woke you up so I could give you this," he handed her a flat envelope. "It's your Christmas gift," he said as she took it. "Well, one of them anyway." He took a step forward. "You could open it now if you like, actually, I would prefer it if you opened it now. That's the reason that I came by."

"You're rambling," Rhuben said to him.

"Right, sorry," Logan motioned for her to open the envelope. When she had and was looking at the gift, he waited for a reaction. Finally, he cleared his throat and lightly tapped the gift. "It's a poem," he said.

"I can see that."

Logan flinched slightly at her cold tone. _So she's still mad at me. It's alright Logan you can do this. _Logan then started to explain. "You see, I wrote this…not long after you got mad at me. I was trying to get my feelings out in a way that I thought that you would understand better. So I wrote this for you."

Rhuben's eyes scanned the page before she looked up at Logan accusingly me. "For me or about me?" She asked.

"A bit of both," Logan admitted, he reached out and took the piece of paper. "I mean, it kind of says it in the poem," he started to recite it. "Hey darling, I hope you're good tonight. And I know you don't feel right when I'm leaving. Yeah, I want it but no, I don't need it. Tell me something sweet to get me by, 'cause I can't come back home 'til they're singin'. If you can wait 'til I get home, then I swear to you that we can make this last. If you can wait 'til I get home, then I swear come tomorrow, this will all be in our past, it might be for the best."

He lowered the piece of paper and handed it back to Rhuben, who took it wordlessly. She didn't say anything as she continued to study Logan, as if really seeing him for the first time. She then folded up the piece of paper and put it back into the envelope before tucking it into the top part of her shots, that had been rolled up twice.

"Listen," She paused and looked at her feet, looking like she wanted to say something, and then looked away. "I need to get back to sleep, so…"

"Yeah, sure, that's fine," Logan held up his hands as he took a couple of steps back. "I'm really sorry for waking you up so early; I just…wanted to be sure that you got the gift." He nodded once. "Um," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Could you just hurry up and make a decision?" He asked. Rhuben looked at him curiously. "I miss us. I miss my best friend." Rhuben looked away. "Merry Christmas, see you later."

He turned on his heel and left.

* * *

><p>"C'mon, Ronan, get up already!"<p>

Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney stood by Ronan's bedside, shaking him gently. The sun had only just begun to be visible through the window in his room, but that still didn't mask her excitement as it was most people's favorite day of the year.

Christmas.

Ronan rolled over, pretending to ignore them, but that only caused Patrick to shake him harder. Peeking out from under the covers, Ronan stuck his tongue out for a brief moment, and then winked. "Ok, ok, I'm up." he muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"You have to come see," Ronan had never seen Sydney so excited in such a long time. Now his eyes were lit up and he was jumping up and down, his movements making little 'thudding' sounds. "It snowed last night! And come on, the guys are waiting for us to come over"

"Syd-"

"RONAN, GET UP!" Patrick shouted as he and Noah dive-bombed onto Ronan's bed. Riley and Rhuben joined in, tickling Ronan on the sides.

"Guys," Ronan laugh-shouted as he frantically tried to wrestle his way out of the blankets on his bed and from the flailing limbs of his childish friends. "Get off, I can't breathe!"

"Don't you guys know the meaning of sleep?" Julius asked with a light laugh as he stood in the doorway to the room, fully dressed.

"Probably not," Brittany spoke up as she appeared beside him, looping her arm around his waist. "You're an early riser, too."

"Yeah, but I'm not noisy," Julius defended himself.

"I beg to differ." Brittany shot back.

"You need to learn to live a little," Riley remarked.

"Whatever," Ronan sat up, pushing his friends off of him as he stretched his arms over his head and looked at the clock. It was still kind of early, almost eleven o'clock. "Do you guys want to open your gifts now or wait until we bring the others over to Kendall's house?" He asked gently. Christmas was a sore subject for them, as they never really had some good ones before. But that was the point of the guys bringing them to Minnesota.

To be sure they had a good one.

"I think we should wait for the guys," Rhuben said slowly. "Apparently they have these traditions about when they open gifts and stuff," she shook her head. "It'll probably be a better idea to humor them about it."

"All right, we should get going soon then," Ronan said as he swung his legs out from the bed. He turned to Rhuben as the others started to leave the room. "So what did Logan want this morning?" He asked gently. Rhuben turned back to him, looking mildly confused. "I couldn't help but wake up at the knocking at the door and then I recognized his voice." He tilted his head to the side as Rhuben sighed, looking at her feet. "I know you didn't ask for my advice-"

"When do I ever?" Rhuben replied, noticing how he had basically repeated James's words from a few days before. "Apparently people don't seem to grasp the concept of advice being something that you want, if you just tell me, it's an opinion." She shook her head. "But, it's you and we can talk about anything; but I never really said that it was your advice that I looked for," she said teasingly. Ronan smiled and reached out, mussing her hair. "What is it?"

"I just couldn't help but notice that since you got into the fight with Logan, which I guess was partially my fault, you've been really down. Not yourself." Ronan said gently. "And I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you when Logan came to talk to me, I just didn't think it was my place."

"It's not your fault," Rhuben mumbled.

"I know it's not, but I still don't want to see you upset," Ronan said. "Anyway, a man named Aldous Huxley once said 'You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.' And the only reason that you're mad at Logan is because the truth of how badly he felt made _you _feel like a lesser person for not realizing it right away. But that doesn't make you a bad person." Rhuben looked at Ronan. "If anything, that makes you more real." He rested his hands in his lap. "So, I'm not telling you what you should do, but maybe it's time that you had a talk with Logan."

Rhuben stayed silent.

* * *

><p>"Ok, one of our first tradition, apart from staying in our pajamas all day long, is that we like to take horse carriage rides around the neighborhoods to see all of the Christmas Lights," Kendall said as he and his friends climbed into the back of the horse drawn carriage that had pulled up at his house.<p>

Once they were all settled, they were under blankets, and hot chocolate and apple cider had been passed out, the carriage started to take its slow run around the neighborhood, slowly starting down Kendall's street. The Jacksons didn't respond, they continued to huddle under the blankets that had been passed out. "Oh come on! You can't _still _be annoyed that you guys weren't recognized until someone pointed it out."

"Excuse us for being used to it," Sydney's upper lip curled. "I mean, I get that fact that you guys are like, hometown heroes, but still. After the shock died down that you guys actually came back, that's when we were noticed. It's just weird, since when we're on the other side of the world, we can't go to any country without being spotted in a second."

"Hey, you guys still got to sign autographs," James reminded them. He knew that they weren't _that _upset about not being recognized at first, but it was still funny to see their reactions, having been so used to being the ones that are usually crowded first.

"What kind of traditions do you guys have back in Australia?" Carlos asked before taking a loud sip of his hot chocolate, changing the subject.

"We do this thing that's called Carols by Candlelight," Sydney explained, pulling Kendall's beanie low over his ears. "People come together at night to light candles and sing Christmas carols outside." He thought for a moment. "And we also do this decorating thing."

"Oh that's really special," Patrick added. "Because it's summer, we decorate our homes with ferns, palm leaves, and evergreens, and this really cool flower called the Christmas bush and the Christmas bellflower." He shook his head before snuggling down under the blanket that he, Katie, and Noah were sharing. "Not everyone puts up a Christmas tree."

"You don't put up trees?" Carlos's eyes widened. "That's sort of the whole point of Christmas."

"No," Katie shook her head. "The whole point is getting lots and _lots_ of toys."

"Uh," Mrs. Knight gave her daughter a disapproving look. "I'm sure it's spending time with your family and friends."

"No, Mom, it's the toys." Katie insisted.

Rhuben twisted her mouth to the side. "What kind of things do you usually look for when it comes to getting a tree?" She asked as she ran her hands through her hair. "I mean, it's just a tree."

"It's not _just a tree _as you have sardonically stated it," Logan replied as he turned to her with a raised eyebrow. Ever since they had gone over to Kendall's house to open presents with them that morning, he was surprised to find that Rhuben had been talking to him a bit more. Surprised, but pleased. _Maybe the poem worked better than I thought it would. _ "It's a Christmas tree."

"Yes, I am pretty sure that we have already established that." Riley stated as she shoved her hands into her coat pockets and pulled her own blanket tighter against her. "But what's so special about a specific tree?"

"Or any other ones?" Rhuben added.

"Ok, you obviously don't get this." Logan stated, looking amused.

Actually, he was happy to be able to try and explain some of his and his friends' traditions about Christmas. It was his favorite time of year, the time where he got to spend time with his family and friends, opening presents, playing games, eating lots of food, and staying in their pajamas all day. It started in second grade, Carlos and Kendall came up with the tradition for the four of them that they would stay in their pajamas all Christmas long and they had done it ever since. James was fine with it because he always wanted an excuse to show off his pajamas, Carlos never really liked getting dressed when it was a day off, but Logan was the last one to be convinced. He always thought that you had to be presentable on a day when your family and guests were coming by, but after trying it one year he was on the bandwagon as well.

"And I'm pretty sure that you're going to tell us, right?" Riley guessed with an amused look in her eye, causing Katie, Kendall, James, Carlos, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney to laugh, knowing that she was right. Logan never missed a chance to tell people everything he knew about a topic.

"A Christmas tree, also known as a Yule tree," Logan started his explanation. "Is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas." He grinned as he continued to explain. "The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century and-"

"You can stop now, Wikipedia." Rhuben smirked. "I get the point." She held up a hand to get him to stop talking. "Now, we'll," she motioned to her siblings and herself. "Just follow you guys and try to soak up this whole Christmas Tree experience." She added sarcastically.

"You're being sarcastic aren't you?" Katie smiled as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Of course." Rhuben replied.

"Wait," Sydney waved a small hand. "We didn't tell them the best Christmas tradition. Ok, since it's always summer when it's Christmas for us, we _always_ go to Bondi beach to watch Santa Claus come in a surfboard to officially mark the day. Then we have a barbecue on the beach or at home to celebrate."

"Ooh!" Katie cried, her eyes lighting up. She reached over and started to smack Kendall on the arm. "I say we do that! I say we have a barbecue this Christmas!"

"I say if you don't pull that blanket closer around us," Rhuben shivered. "That you're going to be delivering me to the hospital due to frostbite. And I'd _gladly_ send you the bill, since you want to be a doctor and everything." Logan smiled. They lay flat on their backs, gazing up at the night sky. "How are you on your constellations?" Rhuben asked. "Because I'd rather much look at the sky then at tacky Christmas lights."

"I'm pretty good," Logan replied. "That's Orion's belt," he said, pointing to three bright stars in the sky. "And over there is a swan."

Rhuben frowned. "Where?"

"Don't you see it? It's right there!" He once again traced the outline of the ten stars arranged in a way that's supposed to represent a swan.

"Are you just messing with me?" She asks, frowning.

Logan shook his head. "It's right there! How can't you see it?" His index finger was still pointed to the sky. When Rhuben didn't say anything, he let out a over-the-top sigh. "You're hopeless. I bet you can't even find the big dipper."

Rhuben started to speak softly, but Logan knew that she wasn't doing it because she was mad. "I remember we used to do this all the time back in Texas," she said wistfully. "You spent so much time teaching me how to find it. And then Riley wouldn't let you go inside to get a blanket or anything when you tried to help her find Virgo."

"Nearly froze to death," Logan remembered.

"I see it."

"You see what?"

"There." Rhuben pointed right above her head. "I see the swan."

"Yeah," Logan said softly. "I knew you would."

* * *

><p>It was the most incongruous smell imaginable in St. Paul, Minnesota on a Christmas Eve: hamburgers, barbecued chicken, and hot dogs cooking on the barbecue grill. And they could all smell it wafting through Kendall's bedroom window. When the carriage ride had ended, Ronan and Julius offered to stay outside and to start cooking things on the grill, after Kendall had quietly suggested it to them, wanting the Jacksons to feel at home, and Mrs. Knight and Brittany offered to help as well as everyone else went inside to get warmed up a bit before they started dinner.<p>

"Mmm, that smells so good," Carlos said, his stomach growling loudly.

"Smells just like back home," Patrick added.

"Except for the lack of salty sea air," Noah reminded him. "But other than that, it does smell like back home."

Riley opened the window and stuck her head out. Unseen, James snuck up behind her and gave her the tiniest push, but caught her instantly as she screamed, his arms around her waist. She turned around and punched his bicep. "So not funny, Handsome!" She scowled.

"Oh come on, it was hysterical," James beamed in reply. "Besides, this is making up for not having mistletoe around," he added, tightening his grip around her waist.

"Remember what when it's Valentine's Day," Riley shot back, lightly hitting him on the hands so he would let her go.

"Maybe we should go outside," Kendall suggested as he leaned over on his bed, pulling his shoes back on. "It smells like dinner is going to be ready soon." He rolled his eyes when Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney all groaned, voicing their annoyance with having to go back outside. "You all _really_ have to get over this being cold thing." He said as he sat up.

"You weren't cold out in the carriage," Katie pointed out.

"Yeah, but then we were sharing body heat," Noah replied, seeming to miss Katie's blush.

"And hot chocolate and apple cider," Sydney added. He moved his mouth to the side as he thought for a moment. "But hey," he reached over and shook Kendall's shoulder. "Maybe we can make that big snowman now; it looks like there's enough snow for it."

"There is," Logan reassured him with a smile.

"No problem, Little Man, let's go." Kendall allowed Sydney to get on his back and piggy-backed him down and out the front door and into the snow, the others following him.

Logan tilted his head back and looked at the sky, half wishing that it would start snowing again (he had always loved watching a fresh snowfall) but he was glad to be able to look at the twinkling stars as well. For some reason, it just put him at ease.

"So I guess I owe you an explanation for everything," Rhuben said appearing at Logan's side. He shrugged as he kicked at the snow. "I just hope that, unlike me, you give me the time to get everything out, since…I guess I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say."

"No, that's fine," Logan said with a nod. "Go ahead."

"I mean, we've been dancing around this topic all day, slowly talking to each other and acting like nothing was wrong between us, when there was something wrong," Rhuben continued.

"I thought I was the only one that noticed," Logan joked.

"First, I wanted to apologize," Rhuben said slowly. Logan knew that was hard for her, ever since she was young (and at this point he was sure that Robert taught her this) she typically didn't apologize for much, even if it was glaringly her fault. He noticed, though, that the only time she did was when it came to him and he, not sure if it was the real reason, chalked it up to the fact that she only apologized if it was to someone that she cared about. "I've been treating you like a jerk lately and that's only because I was taking out my frustration on you."

"It's alright," Logan said as the two started to walk across the front lawn, kicking up snow as they went.

"No, it's not," Rhuben said firmly. "I wasn't being fair. It's just, having to hear that…especially with everything that's piling on top of me, it just made things worse in my perspective." She shrugged, doing the Jackson-famous one-shouldered shrug. "It felt that you were saying that you didn't have my back anymore and I couldn't handle the feeling of being abandoned again.

"When I first saw you again, I was so happy. I remembered everything that we had done together when we were in Texas. But I couldn't show you how happy I was; I couldn't let you know that I wanted things to go back to that because I didn't want you to know about Robert and everything that was going on. My number one priority at the time, and still is, my family and I didn't want to say anything in case our biggest fear, us being split up, would come true by letting anyone to close. So that's why I acted like I couldn't stand being around you guys. But I knew that you knew that something was up because we ha changed so much over the few years that we hadn't seen each other.

Rhuben gave a dry laugh and scratched the back of her neck. "God, I hate talking about my feelings. It makes me feel like a girl." She joked.

"It's alright," Logan said gently.

Rhuben crossed her arms over her chest. _She does that when she's nervous. _Logan realized.

"And after you guys had figured everything out, I thought that they could go back to that and it started to get that way again. But, when you said that you thought that I was replacing you, it couldn't have come at a worse time. The stress of the trial and everything…when you said that you thought that I didn't care as much, it reminded me of a time that I really hated." She looked right at Logan. "It reminded me of how mad I was…those first few months after we moved away, you said that you would call us. We gave you our new number."

"The phone works both ways." Logan pointed out.

"Right," Rhuben replied sharply. "Because I was actually _allowed_ to use the phone."

"How was I supposed to know that?" Logan asked. He wasn't getting mad, he just wanted her to understand that the news of her abuse was nothing short of a shock to him.

"You weren't," Rhuben said calmly.

"I'm sorry that I never called," Logan apologized. "It was just that I was so…"

"So what?" Rhuben asked, not seeming to notice that the conversation had switched sides.

"So afraid." Logan admitted after a minute of thinking.

"Afraid of what?"

"I mean…when you guys moved away, and I moved to Minnesota… you told me that your dad was taking you guys away because he wanted you guys to get even bigger on your music career, I was scared that I was going to lose you. I mean, what if you got really famous, I was never going to see you again and you were probably going to forget about me."

"We didn't forget," Rhuben shook her head. _"I_ didn't forget."

"I didn't forget you either," Logan agreed. "But I thought that when it came to phone calls, you could easily say that you never got them, so I decided to write letters, because you would get a letter and decide what you want to do with it over a short period of time. I sent one letter, didn't get a response, tried a couple more times and got nothing." He shrugged. "So I figured you forgot." He paused, seeing the expression shift on Rhuben's face. "What?"

"I never got a letter." Rhuben said, slowly.

"What're you talking about?" Logan raised his eyebrows. "My mom watched me write like ten of them."

"I never got one," Rhuben repeated and shrugged. "I don't know how…"

As she trailed off, they both knew the reason why there never any letters or phone calls that were received. Robert had intercepted every letter and every phone call and made it seem like Logan didn't care about them, just so he could get a mental hold on his kids and to push them harder and harder each time. Just so they could push their past, their happiness behind, for his happiness.

"Your dad's a dick." Logan remarked, causing Rhuben to laugh lightly.

"Well, that's something that we agree on." Rhuben replied, brushing her hair behind her ears.

"Bella, you're my best friend and I want you to know that I'm always going to be there for you when you need me, even if you don't think you do, even if you don't want me there, I'm going to be there for you, no matter what. To make you happy, even if it's just to make you smile or laugh."

"You always used to say that," Rhuben murmured, turning her gaze to the sky. The two stood in silence for a long time. "Anyway, that's not all." She continued to look at the sky. "After we moved away from you and Texas we were constantly going back and forth from Australia and LA and that caused a lot of stress on us. And because of that stress, and because of what Robert was putting us through…Riles and I…we didn't make the best decisions in the world. I'm not going to tell you about everything because it's not the time, but while we were going back and forth from LA to Australia, Riles and I started to date some guys that were jerks." Rhuben stated and Logan turned to look at her. "And most of them, unfortunately, only cared about our fame because they were dating us. They didn't care at all, and they weren't nice. Long story short, I dated a lot of jerks and that makes it hard for me to trust people." She let out a breath, watching as the condensation moved to the sky. "But Dak's not a jerk. I know that he wouldn't treat me like that. So it also pissed me off that it seemed like you thought that my judgment was terrible reminding me of the decisions I made before, that I was ashamed of."

Logan didn't say anything; he wasn't sure what to say at that point. It was probably the deepest conversation that the two of them had had in a long time. He remembered when they were back in Texas; they used to have conversations like that all the time. He then remembered what Ronan had told him, '_back then, was then their abuse first started, so maybe that's what's keeping her from wanting things to be the exact same, I mean, one happy memory with you could have been tainted from something Robert did'_ He realized then that he had been trying too hard to live in the past, when what they really needed was to keep moving forward, to make new memories.

"You know that poem that you gave me?" Rhuben leveled her gaze at him again. Logan nodded. "That's not a poem, that's a song." She nodded when Logan looked confused. "All of the best songs out there start off as poems, and you wrote one."

Logan shook his head. "If it was that easy then I should be able to write one for our CD, but I just can't seem to get the inspiration."

"You just needed the feeling behind the song, that's how you got this one done," Rhuben said.

"It's not done," Logan denied. "It was only part of a song. There's no chorus or anything."

"There is now." Rhuben's eyes sparkled mischievously. She thought for a moment and then tilted her head to the side. "I've been thinking about it all day and it sounds more like a song that we would do. If I got your permission…my siblings and I could put it on our CD, but you'd get the credit for the co-write." She said.

"You already thought of something to put on it?" Logan asked. He gave her an incredulous look. "We hadn't spoken for, like, months, and it took me that long to come up with that."

"And it's perfect," Rhuben insisted. "Just…listen, please?" Logan nodded. She took a moment to take a breath before she started singing. "Hey sweetie, I need you here tonight. And I know that you don't wanna be leaving. Yeah, you want it but I can't help it, I just feel complete when you're by my side. But I know you can't come home 'til they're singin' la, la la la, la la la. 'Til everyone is singin' la, la la la, la la la. If you can wait 'til I get home, then I swear to you that we can make this last. (La la la). If you can wait 'til I get home, then I swear come tomorrow, this will all be in our past. It might be for the best."

"Wow," Logan said when she had finished singing. "You know, there's a reason that you guys are so musically inclined."

"Thanks," Rhuben said with a half smile. Her smile then dropped and she used both of her hands to push her hair from her face. "I want you to know that we may fight about a lot of things, because there are going to be things that we don't agree on. Especially the way that I handle things or my private business being talked about, or how I handle just being bored. But it helps to know that you're there for me." She paused. "I'm torn between needing you and wanting to push you away. I don't feel sane without you, but I'm terrified of trusting you. I don't know what to do."Rhuben started to dig a hole in the ground with the tip of her shoe. "Because you're, like, my guardian angel or something." She shrugged. "I don't really believe in that stuff, but I do believe that things happen for a reason, and you're my friend for a reason." She lifted her head and looked at him right in the eye." You're my _best_ friend for a reason and nothing's going to change that, Logie-Bear."

"Promise?" Logan asked.

Rhuben reached out and grabbed onto his hand, squeezing it in hers. "Promise." She replied. Logan smiled and squeezed her hand back before giving her a hug. Rhuben hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arms around her best friend's waist, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, and hugging him back.

"Hey guys," Julius called, waving a hand over his head. "The food's up, let's eat!"

"It's not snowing, thank god," Rhuben said as she and Logan turned and started to walk back over to the picnic tables that had been set up to accommodate everyone. "But this is even better."

Logan looked up at the sky.

The stars were out.

It was a Minnesota Christmas.

And Rhuben's hand was still in his.

He had his best friend back.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So, what did you guys think? Was the wait worth it? Ok, now, I bet you all think it's weird and sort of convenient that Rhuben just so happened to come up with the song pretty quickly, but as the Jacksons have been writing songs for years, they have many that float around for demos as well as have the ability to come up with songs, though not all of them come up as quickly. So I hope that made sense (plus she _did_ have all day to come up with her part of the song).

Also, don't worry about the presents and everything, I have that coming up as a deleted scene after this whole story is done, I didn't put it in because I thought it would take away from what I originally had planned. (Plus it also feels kind of weird to do a Christmas chapter when it's not Christmas anymore).

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	48. (Can't Get You) Outta My Head

**.:Chapter Forty-Eight – (Can't Get You) Outta My Head:.**

**Aka**

**.:Chapter Forty-Eight - Runaway:.**

_"Do__ you have any idea what you've done? You took the only thing that beats in me. I tried to get you out of my head, but you insisted that you stayed here too. What am I supposed to do?" ~Anonymous_

_"I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a father, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay." ~Anonymous_

* * *

><p>"When's Ronan and Julius supposed to get back?" Patrick asked as he brushed his hair out of his face. He was leaning forward, a video game controller in his hands, his tongue lightly sticking out from his mouth, as his fingers flew over the buttons on the GameCube controller that he held in his hands. "I thought they were only going to a few meetings."<p>

"That's what he said," Rhuben said, crossing her legs as she held onto another controller, lightly twisting it back and forth. "I mean," her nose wrinkled. "How long can Gustavo keep them hostage? All day apparently."

"It wouldn't put it past him," Riley said, smiling lightly as she tugged at her lower lip. "He'd do it just to get back at Ronan for all of the cracks that he's made over the years."

Noah flopped down on the couch next to him and placed his feet in his twin brother's lap as Patrick looked at his watch. "It's weird though, it's probably the latest he's been since, like, forever." He flipped his hair out of his face and crossed his arms over his chest as he settled into the couch. His eyes moved around the apartment. "That and he usually calls if he's gonna be late."

"I don't know," Sydney shrugged, holding onto the apartment phone in his hands, staring down at it. As each second passed, his expression seemed to deflate even further until he sighed loudly. "I just hope they hurry up." He moved the phone so it was sitting next to him and focused on the TV as well.

All of a sudden, the Jacksons jumped when they heard the sound of something breaking in Ronan's room. Sydney practically launched himself off of the floor and onto Noah's lap. Riley slowly got off of the couch, exchanging looks with her brothers and sister as she moved. Rhuben quickly got up from the chair that she was sitting in as well.

"Ronan?" Riley called quietly, frowning when there was no answer, but she could clearly hear some movement from Ronan's room. "Hello?" She suddenly made a face. "Now I see why people do that in horror films."

_Great, you just had to mention that, Riles. _Sydney shrank back against his brother, feeling himself started to shake. "Don't go," Sydney whimpered when he heard no answer. "Don't go, stay here."

"We'll be right back," Rhuben replied as she turned to see the three of them looking back at her, faces showing expressions of fear. She gave them as good a comforting smile as she could manage. "You three just stay there. No worries, I'm sure it's nothing."

Riley and Rhuben continued to move towards his bedroom. Riley leaned over and grabbed a golf club that was sitting by Ronan's bedroom door. Rhuben's eyes narrowed when she noticed someone standing in the middle of Ronan's room, as if waiting for them. Riley slowly pushed her hand into Ronan's room and snapped on the lights. In a matter of seconds, Rhuben screamed in pain as Robert whipped his belt across her cheek. He pushed her onto the floor and kneeled onto her legs so she wouldn't get away and raised the belt over his head.

"I've been waiting all day to do this" he hissed and brought the belt down on her back with a crack. Rhuben screamed in pain. The belt ripped through her shirt and hit the skin on her back repeatedly. Every hit caused the immense pain. It robbed her of her breath as she screamed in agony, not having felt that pain in such a long time.

"Back off!" Riley pulled back her fist and punched him across the face; blood spurted out of his nose and fell on her hand as she heard the bones in his nose crunch. Robert fell off of Rhuben, who had already passed out due to the dizzying pain. Riley then held onto the golf club tightly with both hands and swung it into the side of Robert's head, causing him to scream out in fury. She turned towards the living room. "Run!" she shouted towards he brothers as Robert grabbed her by the hair and quickly moved the belt over her head and around her neck, squeezing it so tight she fell unconscious almost immediately.

Patrick and Noah knew that something was wrong as soon as they heard Rhuben's scream, but they couldn't bring themselves to move. Sydney, on the other hand, had moved from Noah's lap and was now kneeling on the couch between the twin brothers. The three watched eyes wide with fear, as Robert walked towards them from the kitchen. They began to back up as their eyes stayed on their father, slowly at first until they turned around completely and began sprinting for the front door of the apartment. Patrick threw open the door so hard that they could hear it crack against the doorframe before they started running down the hallway towards the stairs.

"Do you remember him being able to run so fast?" Patrick asked as he pumped his arms and legs as fast as he could.

"Definitely not," Sydney skidded around a corner, pushing an older woman out of his way, before running into the stairwell, his brothers behind him.

Noah could hear Robert thundering behind the stairs, and he whipped his head around for a second.

Big mistake.

He hit the second step and fell.

Hard.

Patrick and Sydney crashed into him and he fell too. Robert finally caught up to them at their place on the stairs and grabbed them by the hair. He pulled them from the stairs to a corner of the stairwell and lifted them up by his hair to a standing position-Sydney screamed of pain, salty tears making waterfalls down their flushed cheeks. Holding back their shoulders tightly against the wall with one hand, he used the other to repeatedly hit them at any place he could reach above the shoulders.

Noah didn't physically struggle, just listened as Robert screamed insults and profanities at him and his twin and his baby brother, trying to hold back the tears of pain that were winning a battle against his eyelids. Each hit came faster and harder than the one before it, and he executed the last one so hard that he sunk to the floor, hands over his face in a sort of shield. It wasn't fair, he knew that he had the power and the strength to keep their father away, but for whatever reason he felt like he always did when his dad was around.

Like a pathetic little kid.

Patrick's face was raging with pain and seemed as if it had spread to the rest of his body. He felt lightheaded and weak and was stuck on the ground, leaning on the wall for support to keep him from passing out. His face was buried n his arms.

Sydney was in between Patrick and Noah as the two of them tried to keep their father from getting to the little boy. He was crying hard, his face hurt, and he wasn't sure if it was blood or tears that were making his face feel all sticky. And just as fast as they had ended, the blows started again. Now they came from his father's foot and were directed at their legs. It hurt so badly that they uncurled themselves and he immediately began kicking at his stomach. All he could do was scream. Robert kicked harder; he brought each kick hard and swift at the exact same place on his stomach. Every time it connected, the air was knocked out of the boys and they were at a loss for breath.

"You thought that you could get away from me!" he shouted in between kicks.

He paused for a minute, waiting.

"I…I…" Patrick tried to choke out, but he couldn't breathe.

He tried again but without any luck. Each breathe he took came in short and wasn't filling his lungs. He tried, really tried, his hardest to reclaim any bead of energy he may have had left so that he could give him a signal, a nod, something to show him that he understood. That he would never lie to him again. That he would bow down to Robert, give in. But he couldn't.

He watched in horror as Robert sighed in frustration and gave them one last kick.

Then he undid his belt and held it above him like a sword.

All of a sudden, there was the sound of rapid footsteps and a cry as Robert was hit from behind. Rhuben stood behind him, holding onto the rails of the banister, her feet off of the floor. Her arms were shaking as she used her arms to support her body strength before she swung her feet and aimed a scissor kick at Robert's neck. Robert fell to the side; stumbling back even further and Rhuben lowered herself to the ground.

"C'mon," she grabbed onto her brothers' arms and hurried them back to the apartment where Riley was leaning in the doorway, rubbing her neck with one hand, and holding onto the golf club with the other. She backed up as her siblings raced in and slammed the door shut behind them, grabbing onto the doorknob. She let out a yelp and backed away from the door when the doorknob started to frantically twist back and forth in her hand.

She pressed her body weight against the door as Rhuben ushered Patrick, Noah, and Sydney behind the couch. She then went back to Riley and helped try and hold the door closed, but the two were forced backwards as the door was flung open.

"What's going on?" Ronan looked at the Jacksons, bewildered as he and Julius entered the room. "Why are you blocking the door?"

"You didn't see him?" Rhuben demanded.

"Didn't see who?" Julius asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked over at his little brothers and sisters.

"Dad was here!" Riley blurted out. "We saw him, all of us did!" she stated to look hysterical, gesturing wildly with the golf club that was in her hand. "He came in Ronan's room and…started to chase us around and….he hit us."

"What happened to your hand?" Julius asked when he noticed that there was blood on it.

"I punched dad in the face," Riley replied, barely looking down at it. She then let out a sound of frustration, stomping her foot on the ground. "I'm telling you, he was _here_!"

"Where _were_ you when you punched him?" Ronan questioned gently, yet firmly. He had to know what was going on, he had an idea, but he couldn't be too sure himself. "Show me." Riley slowly turned and she and Rhuben walked into his room, pointing out to Julius and Ronan where they had been attacked.

"Right here," she replied. "I punched him."

"You punched the mirror," Julius replied. At his statement his little sisters looked over at him with shocked expressions. "See?" he pointed to the floor to ceiling mirror, which had a jagged hole in the corner. Riley looked at her hand, saw the blood, and lightly ran her fingers over the knuckles, feeling little shards of glass.

He was right.

"What about my back?" Rhuben started to frantically pull at the back of her shirt. "He whipped me with a belt, I can still feel it. What do you think that is?" Rhuben dropped her shirt and grabbed onto her hair and started to breathe heavily. "What's going on?" she shouted desperately. "I'm not going crazy!" She closed her eyes shut as tightly as she could. "_We're_ not going crazy!"

"No, you're not." Ronan agreed as Julius pulled his sister into his chest as he whispered to her, trying to calm her down. "Follow me; I want to talk to you guys about this." Julius, Riley, and Rhuben followed Ronan back into the living room. "Listen, I know that you guys didn't want to tell me that you kept seeing your dad, but I know you have."

_I thought that we were doing a good job of hiding it. _Sydney's eyes widened as he exchanged glances with his brothers and sisters. _Are we worse liars than we thought we were _"How did you know?" Sydney whispered, still sniffling.

"Well, I could tell from the expressions on your face," Ronan replied. "You would suddenly look really scared as you stood there and the only time that I had ever seen that expression was when he would be around you guys." He explained gently. "There are also many times that you would suddenly lose your temper and yell at nothing, or just start talking to what someone would assume as yourselves, thinking no one else would notice it. And Julius recognized the look because he had that look too, from what he tells me at least."

Julius's siblings looked over at him and he nodded.

"I don't understand." Noah voiced everyone's thought.

"I've been seeing a therapist for years," Julius explained. "I started right after I got out of our house to go to college, because I knew that that would make me…better." He took a breath. "And now, it makes me realize that the only reason that I haven't seen dad is because I've been able to talk about it and figured out how to handle it."

"In other words," Ronan jumped in. "All you guys have ever done since you started to get abused is hide it and the feelings that you've had from it. All that you've ever done is keep everything inside and hope that nothing spilled over. You've hid it so much that your brain has caused you to keep thinking that your dad is around. The fact that you didn't talk about it, that you haven't faced your past is just haunting you. So what we're going to do is start sending you guys to a therapist."

"But, we're also going help you guys come to terms about your past." Julius added.

"I don't want to go to a therapist," Patrick said firmly. "I don't want to be treated like I have a problem."

"But you do," Ronan reminded him. "And with the trial being _so_ close, it's not going to help you if you don't get the help you need." He thought for a moment. "Why don't you guys get cleaned up and then we'll get dinner started for you." He waited for them to leave the room before he turned to Julius. "Do you think this is a good idea?"

"Sending them to a therapist you mean?" Julius asked, for clarification. "Why? Do you think it's _not _a good idea?"

"Oh yeah," Ronan replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I have no money to send them to a therapist and I just want them to get away from me." He shook his head. "Sorry, that came out a lot harsher than I intended. I mean, do you think it's a good idea for them to go through this _and then_ have to go through the trial. Going to a therapist…" he shook his head. "That's going to bring up so much stuff they probably blocked out. I don't think they'll need to go to a therapist _all _the time, but only whenever they really need it, you know, since it might hurt them."

"But it might help them, too." Julius said gently.

* * *

><p>"Honey, are you ok?" Mrs. Knight asked, looking over at Kendall. He was sitting on the couch, not seeming to watch the hockey highlights that were playing on the TV. "You look out of it."<p>

"I'm just…thinking about the trial I guess," Kendall stood up and turned off the TV. "I mean," he trailed off as he walked over to his mother. "I didn't think it was going to be so hard to help my friends against Dad. But now that it's getting closer, it's really scary."

"I know," Mrs. Knight put down the magazine that she was reading and gently cupped Kendall's cheek with her hand as he sat at the kitchen table with her. "But you have to remember that you're putting a man in jail, a man that has done some terrible things, and not to let your emotions towards your father get in the way."

"But he's defending someone that did something _wrong_." Kendall cried.

"I know, but there always has to be someone that does it," Mrs. Knight said firmly. "If not Kevin, then it would be some other lawyer. But if is Kevin and we can't change that now." She reached out and grabbed onto Kendall's hand, shaking it. "All you can do is help your friends start to live a better life, ok?"

"Ok," Kendall nodded his gaze on his hands. He then looked up at his mother. "I love you,"

"I love you, too," Mrs. Knight replied before kissing her son on the forehead. She and Kendall turned around when she heard the apartment door open and Ronan came inside, looking disheveled and worried. "Ronan, are you OK?"

"I don't know," Ronan said quickly, licking his lips. "Does having a heart attack constitute as being OK?"

"What's wrong?" Kendall asked.

"I think my kids ran away," Ronan said after a second, as if he still couldn't believe it. "I mean, I woke up, to get breakfast started and…they weren't there." He pointed over his shoulder. "Julius is in the car, Brittany's back at the apartment, waiting to hear…we've been looking for them all day."

"They're gone?" Kendall repeated, immediately becoming worried.

"Ok, Ronan, just think rationally," Mrs. Knight said as she stood up. She went over to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You said that you've been looking for them all day?"

"Yes, and then I came here to see if they had said anything to the boys or if they had come by…"

"Hey guys!" Kendall called loudly. "Get out here now!" He waited as James, Logan, Carlos, and Katie hurried out of their rooms.

"What's the matter, bro?" Katie asked him.

"Did the Jacksons call your or anything today?" Kendall asked urgently. "An e-mail or a text or something?"

"No." James shook his head.

"Not that I'm aware of," Carlos added.

"What's going on?" Logan asked.

"They may have run away," Ronan snapped, already tired of having to repeat himself. "And we've looked everywhere that they could have gone. We called the girls, we called Dak and Lizzie. No one has seen them. I thought they'd be here with you."

"I haven't talked to them," Katie shrugged. "And they haven't really said anything to me either, since we got back. Not anything that would be out of the ordinary." She thought for a moment. "Probably because the trial is so close."

"Ok, you looked all over LA," Mrs. Knight thought for a moment. She then turned to Ronan and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking at him earnestly. "Out of any place in the world, apart from anywhere in LA, where would they run off to?" She asked.

Ronan didn't have to think very hard about it. "They'd go back to Australia," he replied. He then shook his head. "But…I'm not sure how they would be able to get tickets," he said, looking from Mrs. Knight to Katie to the boys. "They can't buy any without me seeing that they used some of their money for it, since they don't have the complete rights to it until their eighteen, and if they used my name or card, I could still see it." He frowned. "And they didn't get any round-trip tickets as a gift from any airline."

"What other way could you get tickets then?" Kendall questioned out loud. "Other than getting them offline, but it's like you said already," he motioned to Ronan. "If they did, you would have seen it in a second."

"Frequent flier miles," Logan said, snapping his fingers.

"What are frequent flier miles?" Carlos asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Basically," Logan thought of a simple way to explain it. "If you use a specific airline over and over again, then the amount of miles that you travel is all added up and can be used for free air travel; for other goods or services; or for increased benefits, such as travel class upgrades, airport lounge access, or priority bookings."

"But they always travel with Ronan," James pointed out. "So if they used frequent flier miles, he'd be able to see it, since they would be using his. And if he is connected to their accounts, he would _still _be able to see it."

Logan's eyes narrowed as he shook his head. "Not if, and this is a long shot, not if the police never closer their _parents' _account at the airlines." He looked at Ronan. "If their parents traveled a lot, which is a stretch since I don't know what their jobs were, then they could have accounts. And when they passed away, maybe the police didn't think to close them, knowing that no one else would be able to get to it." He shrugged. "So it's possible the Jacksons could be using their parents' miles. It seems like something Sydney would do."

Ronan paled.

* * *

><p>"When does the plane leave?" Patrick asked in annoyance as he tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. "We've been at this gate for <em>forever<em>!"

"Patty, it's only been forty minutes." Noah replied as he looked up from the book that he was reading. He gave a shadow of a smile and shook his head. "You're so impatient."

"Well, we've been at the airport for hours." Patrick scowled. "And how many times have I told you to _stop _calling me Patty?"

"About as many times as I've told _you_ to stop calling me Noahy."

Rhuben smiled as she took a picture of the two of them and then turned the camera to Riley, who was looking at her iPhone. Sydney was sitting on the floor, typing away on his laptop; Rhuben took a picture of him before walking over.

"Watcha working on Little Man?" she questioned as she sat beside him.

"I'm typing up a note to put on our website to tell our fans that we're going back to Australia, but it's going to be set to private until we get there," Sydney explained as he cracked his knuckles. "I'm telling them that I hope they respect our privacy and back off a bit," he gave a small smile. "But you know how some of them can be."

"Yeah, I know," Rhuben sighed in reply. She looked at her watch. Their flight didn't leave for another hour and she was already bored. She looked around at her siblings before smiling a little bit. Patrick noticed her smile and raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was smiling about.

"Rhu-Rhu?" Sydney asked quietly. Rhuben looked at him. "Do you think that Ronan's gonna be upset that we left? I mean," he shrugged. "It seems like we can't do anything right lately. Kendall and Jo could have possibly broken up because of us, like Patrick said, Ronan doesn't seem to want us around, it seems like we bother Julius with our problems, this kind of ruined your friendship with Logan…I could go on." He twisted his hands in his lap. "Most of the time you guys say that running away from our problems doesn't help. But does this?"

Rhuben thought for a long moment.

He had a point.

Earlier that morning they had all gathered in the guest room in Ronan's apartment that he had converted in a room for Riley and Rhuben and talked about everything that had been going on. They had heard what Ronan said to Julius about not having the money for the therapist and started to talk about all of the other things that had gone wrong since they had started to really work on their music in LA. From what Patrick told them, it _did_ seem like they were the reason for Kendall's and Jo's break up, their past abuse was the main factor as to why Rhuben had gotten mad at Logan, Ronan _did_ say that he didn't want them around, and they had lied and betrayed their other friends so much…now they were going to be taken to the trial to answer some harsh questions that could stir up even more trouble. It was like they made a joke of, if you were related a Jackson, were friends with a Jackson, or your last name was Jackson, then you're bound to be in trouble.

And they've brought nothing _but_ trouble almost everywhere they went.

Even though they didn't mean to.

"I don't know," She finally replied.

Sydney frowned, but he nodded.

"I'm going to get something to eat from the McDonalds," Riley stated as she stood up, brushing off her clothes. "Do any of you guys want something?" she blinked as her siblings started shouting things that they wanted to have to eat. "Ok, I didn't get any of that, let me-"

She stopped suddenly, as a pair of hands moved over her eyes. "Guess who."

Riley pushed Ronan's hands off of his face and turned around as her siblings gathered around her, all of them looking at Ronan and Julius weirdly. "How did you know where to find us?" She asked after a minute, finding her voice.

"You think I don't know how my brothers and sisters think?" Julius looked a little offended. "Please. I've known your long enough to figure out how your head works." He crossed his arms over his chest. "It was almost obvious that if you wanted to get away, the first place you would go is back home, where everything is calmer and makes sense."

"The only thing that we _didn't_ know was how you would get on a flight back here, without using your name, which you hate," Ronan said, his hands in his pockets. "And without using any of your money, otherwise Julius or I would have seen it. So using your parents' frequent flier miles was the only way that we could think of that you would get out of here."

"Right," Noah nodded slightly. "Only thing is that Syd came up with it. And, no offense…" he pointed at Ronan. "You're not as smart as Sydney is."

"But Logan is," Ronan corrected him. "When we found out that you guys had runaway, our first thought was to check with the guys to see if they knew where you had gone. They were just as worried as we were when they heard the news."

"They were?" Patrick whispered.

"Yes." Ronan nodded. "And it was Logan that suggested the idea that you guys would have used your parents' unclosed account. Your father was a rocket scientist, so he probably traveled a lot. Right?" He looked at Julius.

"Right," Julius agreed. "Now, why did you guys run away?"

"Because all we do is cause trouble." Sydney mumbled, looking at his feet. "We caused Kendall and Jo to break up, it caused Rhu's and Logan's friendship to fall apart, we cause drama everywhere we go, and…even you didn't want us anymore." He was talking in the direction of his feet, but he was speaking to Ronan. "We heard you when you said that you didn't want us around."

"I was being sarcastic," Ronan said, looking hurt. "I want to adopt you guys, why would you immediately think that I didn't want you around?"

"Because we're used to it," Riley shrugged.

"Listen," Ronan took a breath. "I wouldn't have tried to so hard to figure out what was going on with you guys if I didn't care about you. I wouldn't have asked Julius's permission to adopt you all, and him, if I didn't care. I wouldn't have asked Kacey, Gustavo, and Kelly about you guys over and over if I didn't care. I'm sorry if wanting to send you to a therapist or making a sarcastic comment about a bad situation made you think otherwise." He moved his mouth to the side. "I love you all, and I don't think that I can see us other than becoming a family, ok?"

"Ok," Sydney said after a second of hesitation. He looked hopeful, but as if he didn't want to let Ronan in on how excited he really was.

"You're not going to be alone when you're at the trial," Julius added. "I'm going to be there, so if Brittany, so are all of your _friends_. We're not going anywhere and neither are you." He held open his arms and his brothers and sisters gave him a hug. "Are you ready to go home?"

"Which one?" Patrick asked.

"_Our_ home," Ronan said firmly. "Here in LA."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **There was a time-jump in this chapter, if you didn't catch it. It's a month or so after they get back from Minnesota. Next one is technically the last one as there is an epilogue. I'm gonna do a deleted scene where you see the Jacksons running away later. (Also, if you're confused, this chapter spans two days' time).

Cheers,

-Riles


	49. The Trial

**.:Chapter Forty-Nine – The Trial:.**

_"Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect." ~__Hunter S. Thompson_

* * *

><p>"Ronan?" Sydney asked, as he walked into the older man's room. He climbed up onto Ronan's bed and watched as his friend nervously tried to tie his tie. He missed the first few times, and had to re-start before he finally managed to move his hands in the right direction. But when he missed again, Sydney gave a loud sigh and held up his hands, signaling to Ronan that he would do it. "How come when you and Julius found us at the airport, you didn't yell at us?"<p>

Ronan made a grunting sound as he turned towards Sydney, lifting his chin. Sydney grabbed the silk tie that was around his neck and started to go through the process of tying it. "Would it have helped?" Ronan asked his green eyes up towards the ceiling.

"No," Sydney replied honestly. He stuck out his tongue as he finished up tying Ronan's tie.

"So why do you think I would have yelled?" Ronan lowered his gaze to the ten-year-old. "The fact that you guys got nothing but criticism, put downs, curses, and being yelled at by Robert when he was with you…I knew that yelling and screaming at you all could probably make it worse. That's why I tried to stay as calm as possible." He studied the youngest Jackson. "I was angry, but I didn't want to show it. I know that you probably expected it, but I'm not like Robert."

"Ok," Sydney shrugged. "That makes sense." He tilted his head to the side before doing one last tug on the bottom of Ronan's tie, making it fall into place perfectly. He slowly gave a knowing smile. "Did you want to cry when you found out that we ran away?"

"Of course," Ronan replied. He then gave an exaggerated smile. "But I'm a man, and men don't cry." Sydney laughed along with Ronan as Ronan thumped himself on the chest with his fist.

"Done," Sydney lowered his arms and jumped down from the bed.

"Thanks," Ronan ran a comb through his hair before he went out to the sitting area of his apartment. He nodded over at Julius and Brittany, who were sitting at the counter, reading the newspaper quietly, though he was sure that they weren't really reading it.

Sydney went over and joined his siblings as they all squeezed on the couch, looking off into space. Ronan gave a sympathetic smile before taking a deep breath. No matter what happened that day, things were going to be fine.

"You guys ready to go?" He finally asked.

* * *

><p><em>Can't this stupid trial just start already?<em>

"God I'm so nervous," James raised his hand to his mouth and started to bite his fingernails. He didn't notice until a few moments later when Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and Katie all looked at him funny. "Great." He removed his hand from his mouth. "I've never bitten my nails before, next thing you know, I'm going to be sticking my finger in my ear and wiping my earwax everywhere."

"Hey!" Carlos pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest. "That was only when I was seven."

Logan shook his head as he looked around the courthouse. There were people streaming into the building, talking and whispering to each other. Some of them, he could see, looked excited. He felt his upper lip curl in disgust, he had heard about it before, that people went to court cases for a sense of entertainment. It didn't bother him before, but now that it was him and his friends, his _family_ that had to go through this, it made him sick. This was going to change their lives one way or another, how could they find entertainment in _that?_

"Logie, are you ok?" Logan turned back around and noticed Kendall looking at him in concern. "You had this really…pissed off look on your face."

Logan didn't bother trying to deny it. "Aren't you pissed too?" He asked the next question gently. "I mean, the man that you haven't seen in years is going to testify against the man that hurt our friends. How are you dealing with that?" He looked back at Kendall. James, Carlos, and Katie looked at Kendall quietly.

"I'm dealing with it," he finally replied.

Logan nodded but didn't say anything else. He looked up as he saw movement at the end of the hallway and watched as the Jacksons, Brittany, and Ronan entered the hall. They didn't look nervous to him, their faces were perfectly blank. He learned quickly that they were really good at hiding their emotions, so he wouldn't be surprised if they were showing nonchalance but were just as scared, if not even more, as the rest of them. When they had gotten back from Minnesota and heard the news that the trial date had been set for two months from then, everyone, in their own way, started to freak out about it. They tried to keep their minds off of it as long as they could, but it would always creep back in there.

As the Jacksons reached their friends, the doors to the courtroom opened and Jo, Camille, and Stephanie stepped out into the hallways with everyone else. Logan would have laughed; it was sort of funny in the serious situation. Almost like they had timed it so that they would come out exactly at that time.

_Maybe they had been watching for them. _Logan entertained himself with the thought.

"Hey," Patrick greeted with a short wave, before shoving his hand into the pocket of his black slacks, looking uncomfortable. It was the first time in a long time that any of them had seen Patrick without his hair up in spikes or with glasses on. He was only fifteen, but the look just made him look like he was a lot younger.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" Stephanie asked, twisting her hands together. No one knew what to say. It was a touchy subject, they all knew that. They didn't want things to get worse for any of them.

"Nervous." was the unanimous reply, causing the others to laugh.

Stephanie gave a gentle smile before she sat down in between Riley and Rhuben on the bench that was outside of the courtroom. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had gotten up to give them space, thinking that they would need it more and the twin girls had gratefully taken the spot from them. They didn't say anything, but Logan knew that they were still happy for the small motion. He sighed as he looked around at the five of them, Sydney was biting his nails, Noah was muttering to himself, Patrick was rubbing his arms even though it wasn't cold, and Riley and Rhuben were just looking at their hands.

He looked up at Julius and Brittany and saw them standing a few paces off to the side, looking around. Every now and then, Brittany would reach over and fix Julius's tie or his hair, if she wasn't just leaning into his side, giving him silent support.

"Where's Ronan?" Camille asked as she looked around. Wordlessly, Riley pointed down the hall, where Ronan was pacing back and forth, talking on a cell phone. Logan couldn't help but notice, that when she pointed, none of them had their visible tattoos showing. He reasoned that they were probably covered up with make-up, so nothing else bad could be said about them.

_I wonder if they're going to announce their abuse to everyone today. _Logan then thought. _I don't see any cameras or press around, it must have taken them a lot to have it that they didn't show up or make some sort of story in Entertainment Weekly about this._

Jo sighed as she brushed her hair out of her face. "Don't worry guys; this is all going to go well for you. And we're here for you too. We're going to be sitting in the row right behind you so you don't have to worry."

"Thanks Joey." Sydney replied, giving a small smile. It faded almost instantly and he started to bite his nails again.

"Stop biting," Noah reached over and knocked Sydney's hand out of his mouth. "You'll bite them down to the cuticle and we don't need to wrap them up again." Sydney didn't say anything but did as he was told.

"Are any of your guys' legs shaking?" Patrick asked as he finally turned to face his siblings. "Because mine are _really _shaking."

"You're just nervous." Jo laughed as she got up and gently platted his shoulder, causing him to give the briefest of smiles. "I promise. You guys are going to be fine." She slipped back into the courtroom.

"Hey guys," Dak called as he, Lizzie, and WayneWayne walked over to them. WayneWayne looked confused as he was walking at a slower pace behind everyone else. Dak stopped by his friends and gave them a smile, not sure if a hug was what they wanted at that moment. He scanned their faces, his gaze resting on Rhuben a moment longer. "I didn't miss anything did I?"

"No, you're right on time," Ronan stated. He closed his cell phone and walked over to them, looking nervous himself. He took a deep breath before speaking again. "Ok guys, I think we should be getting in there." Ronan stated as he nervously messed with his tie. The Jacksons stared back at him shifting nervously. "Come on."

Everyone got up to go into the courtroom.

Riley reached out and grabbed onto Kendall's arm and yanked back, causing him to stumble back a step. WayneWayne turned to look at the two of the, question in his eyes. Riley held up a finger and he nodded before going inside.

"What?" Kendall asked as he turned to Riley, rubbing his forearm. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to say something," Riley said, an air of mystery to her voice. She thought for a moment and lightly bobbed her head. "And ask you something." She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing. "This has been bugging me for a while…how did you find out about us being abused in the first place? I know how Logan found out, but I'm not sure how the rest of you did. Trust me," She gave a hint of a smile of pride. "We're too careful to have people find it out too easily."

Kendall thought back to the time where he was constantly wondering what was causing them to have such bad behavior as well as to be so secretive.

He felt so helpless back then. One thing he knew was that they wanted to have friends, he could see that the first time that he had looked at them. He figured that the fact that they had been in the music industry for so long would keep them from being able to be close with people their own age without jealousy and backstabbing getting in the way. But he didn't think the real reason was that their manager, their foster father at the time, was causing them so much unhappiness. He knew what that was like, she he tried very hard to show that he was going to be their friend. Of course that didn't work at first, but he was glad that they had finally admitted that they were his friends. It was all he wanted them to know.

He then thought about when he had looked over their lyrics and listened to their songs over and over again until it clicked with him. He felt kind of foolish when he did find out. There were so many hints to it as they were growing up, if anyone noticed that their personalities, style, guardedness, and everything musically had changed over the years, they didn't say anything. So he felt ridiculous when he realized that they had been pleading for help in all of their lyrics. But if Robert didn't figure it out, and it took Ronan a while, then they were really smart with masking their problems in their music. It would be completely genius if it wasn't so sad.

"It took me a while," Kendall said slowly after a minute of thinking. (He had thought so hard that Riley was about to wave a hand in his face). "But after listening to your guys' CDs and looking through your album thank yous and the booklets, and looking through stuff online, it just clicked."

Riley looked hard at him. "You know," she finally said. "You're the first and so far only, person to have figured that out."

"Really?" Kendall looked slightly amused. "After finding it out, I figured it would have been obvious."

"That's what we were going for," Riley admitted. "But people just saw it as a hit and that we had a really connected view of how the world really works, not that we were suffering it ourselves." She looked at her feet. "Listen, with everything that's been going down, I never got a chance to properly thank you, mate. With helping take care of my brothers and making sure that they fit in, with becoming friends with me and Rhu…" She looked away for a moment. "You were the only one that really saw that we just wanted to have friends, and…honestly, I'm glad you stuck around to try it."

"You're welcome." Kendall nodded.

"And…I'm….sorry," Riley looked like she had just sucked a lemon. "For all of the rude things that I've said to you guys." She placed a hand to her chest, making a stricken face. "God that _actually_ hurt." She joked.

Kendall laughed lightly. "It's all right," Kendall waved a hand. "I've actually gotten used to it. The nicknames have started to grow on me, too, even though they're still annoying." Riley gave a half smile, running a hand through her hair. "Was that what you wanted to say?"

"No," Riley said in monotone. Her face softened. "I wanted to say that I'm proud of you." She reached out and gently touched his arm before bringing her hand back to her side as if she burned herself. "Not everyone could go in there and testify against their estranged father without letting their emotions get in the way. "

"I don't know about the last part," Kendall admitted, looking annoyed. "I don't think I've ever hated the guy in my life more than I hate him now, but it's not going to help anyone if I show that."

"You're right." Riley turned her head and looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"What?" Kendall asked.

"Nothing," Riley shrugged. "Just the fact that I now see why the guys consider you their leader." She shrugged again. "C'mon, we should probably go inside."

"Right behind you," Kendall replied as he followed her to the courtroom. _For better or worse._

* * *

><p>Ronan brushed off his hands on his pants legs as he walked up to the front of the courtroom, the Jacksons following him, keeping their eyes straight ahead. They walked down the aisle, past the row of seats until they got to theirs, he stepped back to allow them to shuffle into the aisle before him.<p>

He turned around and looked around the courtroom. Most of the faces he didn't recognize, just people that came out to see what was going on. He knew that some of them were reporters for magazines or blog sites; he wasn't worried about them though. He had struck up a deal with them (including a large sum of money) that they could get the info, but couldn't release the news until the Jacksons did themselves. That was something that they had agreed on doing with their therapist; he felt that if they released the news that their father abused them at the wrong time, especially with the trial so close, it could cause more harm them good. So they weren't going to announce it until they were ready, when they knew that they could handle the return from the news.

Ronan continued to look around the room; he was happy when he spotted his mother and father a few rows from the back. He waved at them and they waved back. His father, Bishop, nodded encouragingly as his mother sat by his side, looking as prim and proper as ever. She didn't show it, but he knew that she was being just as supportive, just by being there.

Ronan's gaze lowered, past Dak, Lizzie, and WayneWayne (who was still looking confused) and over at Gustavo, Kelly, and Mrs. Knight. He could see that they were all just as worried as he was about the outcome of the whole thing, but just the fact that they were there helped him too. Gustavo looked like he was going to do his best not to burst out at anything that Robert said that would piss him off, Kelly seemed to be giving him reminders about it, as he looked annoyed and was rolling his eyes as he nodded. Mrs. Knight was looking right ahead, trying to keep her gaze from drifting over to her ex-husband. When she caught Ronan's eye, she smiled widely, showing off her teeth. The smile calmed him down almost instantly.

Ronan continued to stand when he saw Kendall and Riley enter the courtroom. He waited as Riley hurried up the aisle and slid into her seat with her siblings before he sat down.

"Don't worry guys; things are going to turn out just fine." Kendall whispered encouragingly. The Jacksons nodded but didn't say anything in reply. A hush fell over the crows and all the murmurs stopped when the bailiff walked into the courtroom.

"All rise!" the bailiff called in a loud commanding voice. Carlos flinched at his tone, now realizing the severity of the situation that the Jacksons were in, as he never believed that he would be in a courtroom. Stephanie noticed his flinch and grabbed onto her boyfriend's hand, squeezing it tightly. Carlos smiled and squeezed her hand back; before leaning over and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Every audience member stood up, the sound of chairs being pushed back by the jury ringing out through the room. They watched as the judge moved to the front of the court room from one of the secret doors at the front of the room. James, being able to see over a lot of people's heads as he was tall enough, could see Robert sitting at the other side of the room, clean shaven and looking as if he didn't have a care in the world. He frowned as he looked over at him, wondering how a man could be so cruel and act as if nothing was wrong. His gaze then landed on Kevin, and he turned to look at Kendall and Katie, glad that for the moment, they couldn't' see their father.

"Judge Smith presiding" the bailiff continued, knocking James out of his reverie, causing him to briefly look around the room as he waited for the order to sit back down.

Kendall, Logan, and Carlos were all staring straight ahead, faces stony. Jo, Camille, Katie, and Stephanie looked uncomfortable as any person probably would. Gustavo, Kelly, and Mrs. Knight were in the row behind them, looking straight ahead, looks of determination on their faces. Well, Gustavo had a look of pure hate, an expression he always had whenever he was around Robert, the fact that he was a child abuse made him even more pissed off. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone.

"You may sit down," Judge Smith said as he climbed into his seat, not checking to see if everyone did as they were told. He sighed as he picked up a manila folder and started to look through the pages that were in them. "We're here for the case of Robert Jackson being accused of abusing his children." he turned to the Jackson. "Is your lawyer present?"

"Yes I am sir," a man in his mid-forties with brown, graying hair stood up and nodded. He was actually Ronan's lawyer, as the Jacksons's had been moved onto Robert when the trial was moved against him. It was sort of ironic, that they didn't know they had a connection to Kendall the whole time through Robert. They had seen Kevin Knight every now and then when Robert needed to look over some contracts, but that was when they were younger, before they were pushed into signing without looking things over. Now that they knew who he was, they were glad that he wasn't representing them that day. "Connor McDonald at your service sir."

"Then I think we should get this trial started." Judge Smith replied as he leaned back in his chair. "Robert Jackson, how do you plead?"

Robert stood up, making sure that he made a big show of straightening his tie and moving his arms behind his back. He cleared his throat loudly before speaking his next four words. "Not guilty, your honor."

"Not guilty my ass," Katie muttered under her breath, clearly pissed off. Mrs. Knight nudged her daughter in the side and motioned for her to be quiet. Kendall looked over at his sister but didn't say anything. He didn't need to; his sister's outburst was what he had been thinking.

"My thoughts exactly." Camille muttered, hearing what Katie had said.

Logan smiled a little and Camille reached over and grabbed his hand, covering it with her free one. Some of the audience had begun to murmur at his statement and Camille looked around. On her side of the room were people from Rocque and Blazing Phoenix Records, people that had gotten to know the Jacksons. There were some other people that she didn't know, but they could have been anyone, people that the Jacksons have worked with, or some of their family members, she didn't know. On the other side of the room seemed to be people who were either curious in the case or knew Robert.

As some were nodding.

Judge Smith had stared long and hard at Robert after his statement but didn't say anything. Finally he turned to Mr. McDonald and waved and arm at him. "You may proceed."

"Thank you, your honor." Mr. McDonald cleared his throat as he stood up before turning to face Robert, who looked back at him calmly. "I'd like to call Robert Jackson to the stand." Robert stood up, and went over to the witness stand, swore in, and then got into the stand. "You said that you plead not guilty, Mr. Jackson?" he stated quietly.

"That's correct." Robert replied simply, staring at the man coolly. "Not guilty."

"And are you saying that your children are lying? That they're making this up for defamation? For some sort of a vendetta against you?" Mr. McDonald demanded. "Because if you're pleading not guilty, than it's almost like they were making up the abuse."

"I just think that they have an active imagination," Robert replied smoothly and laughed a little bit. "Especially Sydney. He's always so shy, but he's very creative." He added with a smile. Sydney made a whimpering sound when Robert looked over at him and he buried his face into Patrick's side. "See?" he added with a chuckle. "Really shy."

"So would you say that you have never…_disciplined _your children?" Mr. McDonald continued as his lip twitched.

"What parent hasn't disciplined their children?" Robert asked smoothly. He raised a hand to his chest and lightly tapped himself. "I was disciplined myself. My father was really good at handing out discipline while my mother focused on whenever I needed to be grounded." He shrugged. "I may have spanked them every now and then but-"

"But with the older children," Mr. McDonald interrupted. "Julius, Rilandon, and Rhubella, how would you discipline them?" he inquired. Robert hesitated for a second, the smile frozen on his face. He took a breath before continuing.

"Well, Julius was never really a problem," Robert replied with a little chuckle. "It was Riley and Rhuben that typically got in trouble. They always seemed to want to defy me for one reason or another. Always getting into trouble, always acting out…" He trailed off for a moment as if something resonated with him. "So I had to ground them every now and then, but being teenagers of course they didn't like that and tried to defy me even more." He paused. "I could never really understand why."

_Because you're a bastard that doesn't deserve to be their father_ Logan's jaw clenched in anger, his dimple appearing angrily in his cheek, a vein in his forehead throbbing. _I can't believe that you can sit up there and act like you loved them to death when all you did was cause them pain and suffering._

"Right, you never could understand why," Mr. McDonald continued as he sneered. "So what you're saying is-"

"Objection your honor!" Kevin Knight snapped as she stood up. His green eyes were flashing and his dark brows were lowered, just about the spitting image of Kendall. "I believe that he has already answers the question."

"Sustained!" The Judge replied and then Mr. McDonald let out a huff before turning away.

"No further questions," he replied and then turned back around. "But I _would _like to call up another witness." He waited for the judge's approval before turning to look into the audience. "I would like to call Dr. Hamilton to the stand." Logan looked around, eyebrows furrowing together when he saw a balding man get up and walk over to the witness stand. He swore in and sat down, folding his hands patiently. "Dr. Hamilton, you've been treating the Jacksons since they came to LA haven't you?"

"Yes I have." He replied with a warm smile. "They're some good patients of mine. One of the few that didn't freak out at getting a shot. Well," his smile widened. "Patrick's another story, but they're good kids."

Patrick blushed, moving a hand up to his face. Noah reached over and patted his brother on the shoulder, laughing lightly before the smile faded and he turned stoic once more.

"And how many times would you say that they had gone to your office in the first year they were here?" Mr. McDonald questioned, looking down at his notes. "Keep in mind that with their contracts they first came when the eldest two were fourteen and that was for only two months at the time before they went back home and then came back to do Warped Tour. They came back when they were fifteen, around the time they had off while they were taking a year-long tour. Once more they were only there for two months before doing another round with Warped Tour. Now with their contract, they are in LA for six months and in Australia for the other six."

"Only once or twice," Dr. Hamilton replied as he raised his eyebrows. "When they first moved here there was a lot of stuff in the media about it in Australia, since they were a famous band from Australia coming to try and make it in the United States so that would bring a lot of attention." He explained. "When they first came here they came for a simple checkup and I could see that a few of them had a couple of bruises. And when asked they said that they were clumsy or had fallen down. But after that they didn't come in much, not even to get a physical which most schools would need or to check their progress as they were working hard with their band. As the years went on, it became more frequent."

"Interesting," Mr. McDonald replied and then backed away. "No further questions." It was then that the court room had turned over to Kevin's side.

"I'd like to call Ronan McGuire to the stand." Kevin stated as she moved her arms behind her back and looked over at Ronan. Ronan sighed, twisting in his seat to look over at Mrs. Knight, Gustavo, and Kelly, before getting up and going over to the witness stand. "Mr. McGuire, how long have you been working for the Jacksons?" he paused. "You've been working with them specifically and not any other band and I correct?"

"Yes, you are correct." Ronan replied. "I've been working with the Jacksons since they first came out to California when Robert was looking for someone to work with them." He paused, not sure how to phrase his next sentence. "Shortly after I signed them to Blazing Phoenix, Robert brought to my attention that in my contract, I was only allowed to work with them until they reached a certain amount of success or that he asked me to leave. At the beginning I thought it was strange, but thought nothing of it because it was the first well-known band that I had signed and I grew to like them."

"Right," Kevin replied flatly. "So, what would you say they acted like? Did they ever act out for attention?"

"No, not real-"

"Did you ever thinking that they were abused?" Kevin interrupted, not giving him a chance to respond. "Had they ever shown signs?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then why didn't you do anything about it?" Kevin's eyes flashed gleefully. "Why did you just sit back and continue to let it happen _if_ it did happen?" He smiled a little. "Because if it did and you just sat there and let it happen then you're partially to blame."

Mrs. Knight shook her head as she listened to her ex-husband…_separated _husband accuse her friend like that. She knew that she couldn't say anything or be risked being thrown out of the courtroom. She had to know what was going to happen next, she made herself keep her mouth shut, lightly biting on her lips to keep from speaking up. She mentally gave a sigh as she crossed her legs. This was going to be hard.

"I had my suspicions that they were being abused, yes," Ronan replied through clenched teeth, already annoyed at being constantly interrupted. "And whenever I asked them about it they claimed that there was nothing going on and that they were fine, which is _proof_ that they were being controlled by their father and-"

"No further questions," Kevin finished, holding up a hand.

_Geez, she needs to pull that stick out of her butt _Logan twisted his mouth to the side. The audience had started to murmur to themselves as Ronan went back to sit in the audience again. Logan looked at his watch, an hour had already passed. It had seemed only like a couple of minutes. It was going to be a long day.

"I'd like to call Noah Jackson up to the stand." Kevin stated after staring at the Jackson siblings for a moment. Noah gulped before going up to the witness stand to be sworn in. His nervousness was evident on his face when he sat down, but then it cleared. "Noah, how much would you say that your father has done for you?"

"I…I don't understand what you mean," Noah's voice was barely audible.

"How long has he cared for you?" Kevin replied patiently. "Put a roof over your head, made you dinner, bought you clothes?" He stared hard at Noah, his green eyes boring into his blue eyes. But Noah had played that game his whole life, she he wasn't intimidated in the slightest.

"For about eight years," Noah replied quietly as he messed with the bottom of his shirt, lightly twisting it in his hands. "Since he became our foster father."

"So why would you go and accuse him of abusing you?" Kevin demanded. Noah blinked slowly and tilted his head to the side. "A man that has cared for you for so long, you're going around and essentially stabbing in the back."

"Because it's true," Noah replied quietly, as if she was stupid.

Kevin gave a slow nod before taking a breath and asking another question. "So, if it's true, how come you don't have any proof?" he demanded as she raised an eyebrow.

Noah's face suddenly turned red at the cheeks, a good hint to his siblings that he was starting to get mad. "Don't have proof?" he spat in reply, eyes narrowing. "You're going to stand there in the middle of a trial and ask if I have any _proof_?"

"Whoa, go Noah!" Stephanie said, eyebrows raised in amusement.

"What do you call this scar on my arm that's from a knife?" Noah demanded as he pushed up a shirt sleeve. He held out his skin where a slightly puffy scar was. None of their friends had ever seen it before, due to the fact that he meticulously spent some time in the morning with his siblings, covering up their bruises and scars with make-up. They didn't have to do that anymore. "Or this cigarette burn on the inside of my wrist from the time I was too slow in getting him a beer," he motioned to a small dot on the inside of his left arm. "Or the psychological damage? Sydney is ten years old but he acts like a fucking five year old because of the abuse that we went through. It's hard for us to make friends and when we don't trust a lot of people. And it's all because of our dad's abuse and the fact that he wanted to keep it a secret."

"If this is true, then why didn't you ever tell anyone?" Kevin continued, not taking offense to Noah's tone. It was as if he didn't hear him at all. "Because it seems to me that you're just trying to get your father in trouble for no reason." He held up his hands. "Defamation."

"The only reason that we didn't tell anyone is because we didn't want to be split up," Noah hissed. "I care more about my family being together than how hurt I am. But Ri-Ri and Rhu-Rhu care about our safety more than anything else, because they would take most of the beatings so we wouldn't be hurt."

"So where were you this whole time?" Kevin asked as he turned to face Julius. He looked back at her coolly.

"I'm not on trial here." Julius replied. Kevin snapped and pointed a finger towards Noah, who glared and got down from the witness stand. Kevin turned and smiled at Julius, who glared in reply. "What do you want to know?"

"Where have you been for the past few years?"

"Working at college so I could get my schooling done so I could help my brothers and sisters." Julius replied through clenched teeth.

"Are you sure that you just weren't running away and trying to save yourself?"

"Unbelievable," Kendall muttered as he shook his head. He clenched his teeth together in anger and tried to keep himself from butting in, but as the man continued talking, he knew that there was no way that he would be able to keep quiet. "Would you _listen_ to yourself?" Kendall demanded as he leapt to his feet, not being able to stay quiet anymore. This man was pissing him off and he couldn't let him get away with it. "Instead of being a lawyer be a normal human being and realize that the Jacksons, my friends are telling the truth!" He then sneered. "Or are you too big a man to realize what a father _really_ is."

Kevin looked at his son, an unrecognizable look on his face.

"Yeah," Logan stood up on Kendall's other side. "When we first met them we immediately knew that there was something wrong with them. Especially by the way that they were acting."

"And because we cared about them so much," James chimed in. "We wanted to find out what was going on." He looked down at his friends, who had twisted around in their seats to look up at them. "So we didn't stop asking them what was going on. Sure they got mad at us, but we didn't stop."

"And Logan had seen everything go on first hand. He watched as Robert beat up Rhuben in a parking lot," Carlos added as he stood up along with his friends. He looked at Rhuben, who looked down, ashamed, and gave her a comforting smile. "The way that they were acting and the way that they reacted to things, we realized that it wasn't normal, so Kendall found out that they were showing many signs of child abuse."

"So finally, we decided to call the police to get them away from him," Kendall spoke up again. "And because of us and the fact that we cared about them so much, they're finally happy and away from the man that you're defending."

The courtroom erupted into an explosion of sound. People were shouting, some were screaming, others had leapt to their feet as well.

"I hope with this the guy can finally get put away," Gustavo muttered over to Kelly and Mrs. Knight. "I mean, I thought that this guy was a jerk at the beginning, but going this far…jerk is too nice of a word."

"I know that you mean," Mrs. Knight agreed. "I remember when Kevin left us, I was sort of glad. And just with this happening, I'm even happier that he didn't just decide to stick around and use us as his personal punching bags." She frowned. "I don't know if it would have gotten that far, but I'm glad it didn't."

"But now we know that they're going to get a better life soon." Kelly added and then brought up another point. "They're going to have a lot more fans now that after the trial is over they're going to publicly announce that they've been abused for the longest time. Think about how many other teenagers are going through the same thing." She put a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry that really sounded as if I cared about their music career more than them."

"But they _are_ their music career." Gustavo pointed out. "The only reason they continued with the abuse so they could stay together and so their band could keep going. They cared about each other and their music more than they cared about their safety."

Logan sat back down, stunned at the outburst that they had just created. He looked forward and saw that Rhuben was still looking at her feet. He wasn't sure if she was crying or not, but doubted it. Even if she did cry, she would never do it in public. "Don't worry, Bella." Logan placed a hand on her shoulder. "This is all going to be over soon."

"It's not that that I'm worried about," She said, turning to look at him. Her eyes were a shade darker than usual, letting him know that she was holding a lot more pain that he originally thought. "I hate to admit it, but…the boofhead is putting up a good case," She said, speaking of Kendall's father. "And he's doing a really smart thing, not bringing up Kendall or Katie and I don't think he's ever going to." She took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say, which I wish I didn't have to is, what if Robert gets off scott-free?"

"He's not going to," Logan reassured her.

"You don't know that," Rhuben reminded him. "You can't promise that either so don't even try."

"You wouldn't believe me if I did," Logan said. He reached out and grabbed onto her hands, missing the look that Camille shot him. "No matter what the outcome is, we're going to help you guys the best that we can. I mean, the pictures that the doctor had…there's no way that they can see those and not be swayed to help you."

"The world is a cruel place, Logie-Bear," Rhuben said quietly. "I learned that pretty quickly."

"And now you can learn that the world can be a good place, too." Logan replied. He gave her a warm smile before giving her a hug, which she allowed.

"ORDER IN THE COURT!" Judge Smith shouted, getting everyone's attention and stopping the outburst.

Gustavo smiled and nodded, proud that the boys were sticking up for what they believed in. He agreed with them a hundred percent.

"If there's another outburst I'm going to have to call a recess!" The judge snapped. When he got everyone's attention he finally sighed and fell silent. "I've heard a lot of things today and before I can turn it over to the jury, I need to ask…is there any more evidence that can be shown to sway the case?" When he got no response, he turned back to the lawyers. "Are there any other witnesses that you'd like to call?"

Mr. McDonald shook his head and Kevin let it known that he didn't want to call any more witnesses either. On one hand, it was incredibly stupid, because they could easily get more information out of the rest of the Jacksons or their friends. But on the other hand, it was also incredibly smart. They wanted what they had to speak for itself, also, there would be less time for anyone to try and make something up or doctor evidence to go their way. It was a risky choice, but if played right, it could work.

"Before I switch it over to the jury, I just have to ask Robert a question," Judge Smith said. He turned to Robert, who gave him his full attention. "I was a kid once; I used to have a father that would pop me upside the head anytime I back talked." He gave a half-smile. "I would get in trouble so much that my father's belt was nearly a permanent print on my back." His smile then faded. "Did your father ever discipline you like that?" Robert opened his mouth to answer. "Keep in mind that I _will_ find out the truth if you're lying."

"My father was a hard, angry man," Robert said. "I almost could never do anything right. He always found a fault in something that I did, even if it was done perfectly. He yelled a lot, and he would be extremely rude to my mother." He shrugged. "But he was a man and he taught me how to be a man and a powerful one at that."

Judge Smith nodded. "The jury is now going to go out and decide the verdict of this case." The judge stated grimly, breaking the silence, as the ten members got up and walked out of the room.

They were gone for only two hours before they came back with the answer; they handed over the sheet of paper to the head of the jury. The man cleared his throat before speaking. "Everyone please rise as the verdict is read."

The Jacksons and Ronan all stood up, eyes trained on the jury, refusing to look at or even acknowledge that Robert was in the room, standing along with them. Julius looked down at Riley before smiling gently and grabbing onto her right hand. Riley looked up at him and smiled back before grabbing onto Rhuben's hand. Rhuben grabbed onto Sydney's, Sydney grabbed onto Noah's, and Noah grabbed onto Patrick's as they waited for the verdict.

"Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles," The representative of the jury started to read out loud, causing everybody in the audience to hold their breath. "In the matter of the people of California against Robert Jackson case number C209876 of numerous counts of physical and mental abuse against his children, along with neglect and reckless endangerment, we the jury, and the above entitled action find the defendant, Robert Jackson, guilty of all charges."

While the audience erupted into cheers, the jury waited for them to settle down. Only part of the verdict had been read. Only the part that any of them had been waiting for. But the complete verdict left them stunned. It wasn't the outcome they were expecting. But it was real life, not everything went exactly the way you wanted it to.

"Robert Jackson will serve a maximum of six years on probation, has lost custody to his six children, has to attend a heavy round of anger management classes, as well as having to attend alcoholic's anonymous meetings. Robert Jackson will also have to pay a fine of 6000 dollars per child, thus making it a 36,000 dollar fine." Judge Smith slapped his gavel against the top of his podium. "Court is adjourned."

The courtroom started to empty out. There were murmurs going all over the place. It wasn't the verdict that they had anticipated, not in the slightest, but the bright side of the whole situation was the fact that he had lost custody of them. They weren't going to be living with him anymore; they weren't going to live in fear ever again. The Jacksons, Ronan, and Brittany hugged each other as Gustavo, Kelly, Mrs. Knight, Camille, Jo, Stephanie, Katie, Kendall, Logan, James, Carlos, Dak, WayneWayne, and Lizzie gathered around the Jacksons to congratulate them.

"Congratulations, guys." Katie hugged the Jacksons, beaming happily. "I knew that things were going to go well for you." She didn't look at her father as he filled up his briefcase and started to leave the courtroom. He looked over at his former family before ducking his head and leaving the room.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened!" Rhuben said before Logan grabbed her and hugged her tightly before doing so with the others.

"I know. I can't believe it either." Riley agreed, seeming stunned.

"I didn't know that's what was going on with you all," WayneWayne said quietly. He looked unsure of what to do, his hands still in his pants pockets. "I guess I could say sorry, but I don't really need to anymore. Now that you don't have to worry about him." He looked away for a moment. "Thanks for inviting me out."

"No worries," Patrick replied. "Thanks for the support."

"So what's going to happen now?" Lizzie asked as Dak gave Rhuben a hug. She looked over at Logan as he let go and started to talk quietly to him. She then looked back over at the Jacksons, pushing her hair out of her face. "What are you going to do?"

"I mean, you're already living in Ronan's apartment, you don't have to worry about that," Jo agreed.

"What are you going to do with your fans and all of that?" Stephanie asked, leaning into Carlos's side. "What are you going to do when someone asks or sees some old scars or something?"

"We'll deal with it when we get there," Noah waved a hand. He looked wistful. "Right now it's better if we just focus on the good things that happened today." He gave a half smile. (It's more like his version of a smile as a smirk is Riley's and Rhuben's version of a smile."

"Well, we should celebrate or something," Dak said, turning away from Rhuben to address everyone. "We could go to my house."

"I think Gustav already has you beat," Camille said pointing over to Gustavo, who was talking to Mrs. Knight, Kelly, Ronan, and Mr. McDonald. "I think I heard him say something about going to an all you can eat buffet later tonight."

"Of course that just means that he's using it as an excuse to eat as much as he wants without having to worry about," Sydney shook his head, causing everyone to laugh.

"Either that or it's because he's got a coupon," Logan added. He laughed as Rhuben lightly smacked him on the arm before wrapping her arm around his waist and giving him a hug. She left her arm there even though she was done hugging him. "Something tells me that I'm going to have to get used to that," he said, as he rubbed his arm.

"Maybe," Rhuben replied, her eyes flashing with amusement. "It depends on whether or not you guys work hard enough during your dance practices." She said, cocking an eyebrow.

"You good for hanging out later?" Kendall asked Riley with a grin, leaning against an empty row of seats. "We still have so much that we have to work on with our CD and I'm sure that you guys would be jumping at the chance to help us. Since we're so incompetent and everything."

Riley pretended to think about it. "I don't know, I _may_ have to pencil you in," she replied with a teasing smile.

_It was finally over_.

**THE END**

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><p><strong>AN: **Originally we had it that Robert went to jail for 36 years, but when we researched the outcomes from child abuse cases, it was more realistic (as horrifying as it is) for him to be on probation more than actually going to jail. Rhu and I had talked and we thought that Robert isn't a bad guy, just that he was stuck in a vicious cycle of abuse due to the hand of his father, though his father chalked it up to discipline. I hope that was shown well here.

Also, if this story had gone the way I planned it, then Dak and Lizzie wouldn't know why they went to the courthouse (like WayneWayne) because the three of them wouldn't know what was going on until they got there that day; partly because of the Jacksons's embarrassment and partly because they weren't directly involved in anything that happened. Technically their storylines with BTR and DE don't really start until the end of season 2, which is why they were kind of slighted in this story and also why in other stories they're the main characters to make up for it.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter. Even though this was technically the end, there is still an epilogue coming up.

Cheers,

-Riles


	50. Epilogue

**.:Chapter Fifty - Epilogue:.**

_"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." ~Abraham Lincoln_

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><p>"Ok boys," Riley tossed her surfboard to the ground and re-adjusted her bikini top before placing her hands on her hips. "You can't live in Lala Land without knowing how to surf, so we're going to teach you how." She motioned to her siblings, who were standing beside her. "And with a lot of work you might be able to finally lose your Minnesota paleness."<p>

"Ha ha," Logan rolled his eyes from where he was crouched on the sand, a surfboard on his lap. "You're so funny."

"Aren't I?" She smirked and she and her siblings moved to help their friends to finish waxing their boards.

"Oh, this is going to be so good," Katie remarked from where she was sitting on her own towel. She had a large pair of sunglasses over her face and held a magazine in her hands. But when she saw that the guys were about to go into the water, she picked up her phone and got the camera ready.

"Thanks for the support Baby Sister," Kendall said to her sarcastically.

"Don't worry, you guys should get it pretty quickly," Patrick added. "Surfing is a lot easier than people make it look." He pointed to Carlos's board. "You missed a spot," he said and Carlos moved to fill the space with the hard, crayon-like block.

"What's the point of surf wax anyway?" Carlos asked, making a face as he ran it over the board.

"It's supposed to make it so that your feet slide over the board easier so you can do some specific tricks," Rhuben explained. She twisted her long hair up into a ponytail. "To be a bit more extreme from that, some people surf without their leash."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Logan asked, looking a little concerned.

"It wouldn't be an extreme sport if there wasn't some sort of an element of danger in there, mates," Noah replied. He was standing up by everyone, rubbing sunscreen into his arms. "It wouldn't be nearly as fun," he added.

"What's so fun about having a concussion?" James asked, shaking his head. "That would really put a damper on Tradition tonight."

"Just finish waxing," Rhuben instructed.

With that, the boys finished up waxing their boards as quickly as they could. They made sure not to put too much on or they would be too slippery or too little or they wouldn't move on their board in the slightest. Once that was approved Riley went through the motions of putting on the leash, taking off the leash, as well as letting them know when it was the time to take wax off of the board as well as how to change the fins on a board. They then taught the boys how to do a pop-up. It was simple move, really, but hard to get in one try. The idea was that you would be lying on your stomach, paddling, and when you got into position, you would put your hands down on the board, bring your body up, and get your knee underneath you in one full movement, so you were crouching over the center of the board.

James got it pretty quickly, gloating as he was the first one to understand a pop-up and how to execute one perfectly. Kendall, Carlos, and James had more trouble. If it didn't take then two moves to get it done, when you were supposed to do it in one fluid motion, they would lose their balance and windmill their arms before knocking into each other. Carlos then managed to get it next, after Rhuben gave him the tip that he was essentially being a spring. He easily matched it to the idea of his energy and got it. Logan was a bit annoyed that he couldn't get it the first few tries, as he figured that having an extensive knowledge of numbers and science would help him. It wasn't until after Patrick told him to get the thoughts out of his head that he got it. Kendall was flustered a bit at the fact that he couldn't get it, but when Rhuben reminded him about how he finally learned how to let go and dance, did he get it.

Katie, of course, couldn't help but be a little instigator by taunting the boys whenever she saw the opening to do so. Kendall quickly got her back for that by getting James to help him lift her up off of her towel and the two charged into the surf, dropping Katie into the water. She screamed at them for it, but everyone could tell that she wasn't really that mad about it.

After about twenty minutes more of practicing for it, the Jacksons took their friends out into the shallow water, where the waves were breaking, to teach him how to pass through white water.

"Ok, when it comes to paddling, you have to get through the white water first," Patrick explained, the water coming up to his thigh. "Which is where all of the strength in your arms is going to come into play." Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James sat on their boards, bobbing up and down in the water; Patrick, Noah, Rhuben, and Sydney had one hand on their boards just to be sure that they didn't float away. "You want to position yourself on the board so that the nose is just barely out of the water. Too little and you'll be going under, too much and you'll wear yourself out pushing water."

The guys nodded earnestly.

"To paddle, go for nice, even, strokes," Riley continued, her arms crossed over her chest. "When you need to get through the white water, there are a few other things you have to think about doing."

"You can either plow straight through it, raise your chest up with your arms so the water passes between you and your board, or do one of these other ideas," Rhuben then took over. She held up three fingers and then put one down for each option that she listed off. "The turtle; where just as the wave is about to hit you, you roll over on your back with the board, and pull the nose of the board down. Then, roll back up. The Duck-dive: where you get up on one knee, push the nose of the board under the wave and follow with your body. And bail-"

"But that's only for emergencies," Noah broke in. "It can endanger people around you and you lose a lot of distance. Get off your board and dive for the bottom."

Sydney looked at each of the boys seriously. "But _never ever_tug on the leash when your board is being held underwater, as the board can come snapping back at you."

"Yeah, I learned that the hard way," Riley said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head where she had a scar from doing it herself when she was first learning how to surf. Thankfully it wasn't that bad of a wound and that her hair covered the scar. If it wasn't for the fact that that part of her skin felt a bit different than the rest of her head, she wouldn't remember that she even had a scar there.

"His point exactly." Rhuben smirked.

The guys laughed as they listened to their friends explain everything that they needed to know. Being from Minnesota, all they had wanted to do was play hockey and when hockey season was over, they did as much as they could to take up the time that they had. They usually did it by playing flag football or by playing soccer. They never thought that when they got out to LA they were actually going to learn how to surf. None of them thought about how scary it would be until they actually were out there in the water.

"Ha ha." Riley rolled her eyes as Sydney giggled, holding his hands behind his mouth so she wouldn't hear his laughter. "Ok, for a while before we actually let you stand up on the board, since you mastered the pop-ups on the beach pretty fast," She allowed the boys a half smile. "We're going to push your into the waves and ride them back to shore so you can get a feel over what riding a wave feels like, ok?"

"Got it," Carlos gave a thumbs up.

"Let's do it!" James cheered, punching the air with his fist.

The Jacksons then moved towards their friends and grabbed onto the sides of their boards, moving back a few steps as they looked back to watch as a few small waves came in, pushing the into each one, allowing them to catch some speed and take it to shore. They did this a few more times, so the guys got used to it. Then there were the times that James had tried to stand up and ride a wave. But it had broken out from underneath him, causing him to fall over. The other boys, though, noticed, and couldn't ignore the competitive feeling that washed through their bodies.

"I'm done with this," Carlos commented after the fifth time of walking back to his friends. He dropped his surfboard and got down onto his stomach. "I can do this; give me a bigger wave to ride. I bet you that I can ride before James can."

"No way," James said as he paddled back up to his friends. "I'm going to ride a wave first."

"Not unless I beat you all to it," Kendall denied.

"Boys," Riley commented, rolling her eyes. "Can't they ever do anything without it having to turn into some sort of competition?"

"Obviously not," Ruben agreed.

"It's not as fun if it wasn't a competition," Patrick pointed out. "I mean, who actually wants to learn? It's so boring." Noah looked like he was about to say something, but stopped and shook his head.

"Never mind, that would be _too_ easy," he said.

"C'mon, we can do this!" Kendall insisted. "Once you give us the puck, you _gotta_ let us take a shot." He splashed the water with his fist to add emphasis on to what he said. James, Carlos, and Logan all nodded in agreement.

"I thought he was done with all of those hockey analogies," Sydney stage whispered to Noah, who laughed in reply, shaking his head.

"Fine," Riley agreed after a minute. "But we're going to be out there too, just in case." She and her siblings started to walk back to the sand so they could get their own boards. "Hey Kates, you're coming out there with us." She said firmly.

"But I don't know how to surf," Katie replied, her eyebrows rising behind her sunglasses. "And I don't really plan on learning how." She then grinned evilly. "These pictures I got of the guys would sell for thousands online." She added, wiggling her phone.

"You'll get even more if you get some pictures up close," Sydney remarked. "So just sit on Patrick's or Noah's board or something, they won't let you fall in the water, we just want to watch as the guys try to catch their first waves."

"They're actually going to try?" Katie looked interested as she scrambled to her feet. "This I gotta see!"

She followed the Jacksons back out into the water and then sat down on the front of Patrick's board. She was a little nervous at first, of the shaky movements, but then caught her balance and they all glided back out to where the guys were before they kept going.

"Let's go out a bit further and then you can try catching a wave." Noah said to the guys, who nodded and followed the siblings, paddling through the water to get a good position.

"Oh yeah, a couple more things I forgot to mention," Riley stated as she sat up on her board. She leaned to the side and cupped the sea water between her hands and dumped it over her hair. "First; the person up and riding first is closest to the breaking part of the wave has the right of way. Second; do not drop in on someone who is already riding a wave." She looked serious as she said the second rule. "Dropping in is taking off on a wave in front of someone who is already riding it. Thirdly; when paddling back out over or through a wave that someone else is riding, move to go behind them."

"It allows them to continue riding the wave without having to dodge you," Sydney explained.

Riley nodded.

"And, above all, keep a good attitude," Rhuben concluded. "Apologize after making a mistake and stop what you're doing and check everyone is okay if involved in or near a collision."

"But there's no one else out here, so you guys shouldn't have much of a problem with that," Sydney said, waving his arm out towards the beach and the water. It was early enough in the morning that the rush of tourists hadn't gotten there yet. But they knew it was only a matter of time.

"Oh," Patrick turned and pointed behind him. "A wave is coming," he turned to Carlos, whose eyes widened slightly, as he was the first in the line-up. "Start paddling early as the wave approaches." He advised. "You should be reaching full speed as the waves comes underneath you and lifts you up. The time to stand is when the board starts to plane on the surface of the water. Now go!"

Carlos waited until the Jacksons started to yell at him to start paddling, before doing as he was told, moving through the water at top speed. When the time was right, he hopped on the board, his feet sticking to it nicely. Carlos put his hands out to steady himself and bent his knees low. He rode up the wave and off of the crest. In the air he turned his board one hundred and eighty degrees and cut back down the wave and towards the curl but the wave was dropping off at that point.

The wave rolled him over and over until it dispersed.

When he reached the surface of the water, he was met with the wild cheers of his friends. Pulling himself back onto his board, he started to paddle back to them as fast as he could. "I did it!" He cried. "I did it!" He grinned into Katie's camera as she continued to take picture after picture.

"If you were _that_ good on the wave, imagine how good I'll be," James taunted as he lay down and started to paddle.

"No way, I'm going next!" Logan cried, paddling after him.

"Watch the master and see how it's done." Kendall hurried after them.

"They should be fine, considering that they're the only ones out here," Sydney said. He then smiled evilly, his dimples appearing in his cheek to make him look innocent and like a criminal mastermind at the same time. "So if they get hurt, it's not our fault."

"I like the way you think, Syd," Katie laughed loudly. "So how's the therapy going?" She asked him.

"Fine," Sydney replied with a smile. One of the main things that their therapist said would really help them to get better (or in his words, to progress further) was them coming clean about them going to therapy as soon as they did their first meeting. The Jacksons agreed and were pretty open about the visits that they took the their therapist. They didn't need to go all the time, only when they really needed it, and it _was _helping. Katie hadn't seen them so happy. "But he had told us something that we already knew about you guys."

"What's that?" Katie asked.

"That you guys may be completely crazy," Sydney said, shaking his head, his smile still on his face. "But that no one can beat us in that department."

Katie laughed.

* * *

><p>After the Jacksons had finished up at the beach, they went back to Ronan's apartment to quickly get showered and changed before they hurried off to Rocque Records. Ronan had left a message on the answering machine saying that the two of them and Kelly needed to talk to them about something important.<p>

"What do you think it is?" Noah asked as they walked towards Gustavo's office. He smirked. "Do you think Gustavo found out about the potted plant that we broke and tried to glue back together?"

"If it's not that, it's probably the toaster the mini-fridge, the hole in the wall, his desk leg, or his light fixture," Rhuben said as he put a finger to her chin, deep in through. She then laughed lightly. "Who would have thought that a game of football would break so much stuff?"

She and her siblings laughed as they walked into Gustavo's office. They were confused when they didn't seem him there, and the lights were off. It seemed like he hadn't been there for a while.

"Oh, there you are," they all turned around o see Ronan standing behind them. "I thought that you were going to his office, I wasn't sure if I remembered to tell you to go to the conference room or not."

"Apparently not," Patrick replied.

"Whatever smart ass," Ronan replied with a light roll of his eyes. He turned to Sydney, who stuck out his lower lip and pointed to him. "I'll give you two dollars for that later, right now we have some things to do." Sydney smiled and nodded and he followed his siblings and Ronan into the conference room where Gustavo and Kelly were already sitting down. "Found them."

"I hope they weren't breaking anymore of my stuff," Gustavo said, eyeing them warily. His eyes narrowed when Rhuben moved for a seat and Riley pushed her out of the way. Just as she was about to sit down, Rhuben shoved her back, sending her sprawling to the floor. She grinned as Riley got off of the floor, glaring at her sister and sitting in another chair. "Though it wouldn't be the first time."

"So what's up, Gustavo?" Riley placed her hands on the table and leaned forward. "What'd you need to call us over here for?"

"It's about your guys' contracts," Kelly explained as she walked around the table, dropping the contract that each of them had signed in front of them. "If you remember, you all signed in to help Big Time Rush as they started in the music industry."

"Uh, yeah," Rhuben replied, raising her right eyebrow. "That's why we're here." She looked pointedly at Gustavo. "We wouldn't have stuck with them for so long if it wasn't for the fact that we signed a contact with you guys."

"That's the point," Gustavo took off his sunglasses and leaned forward, looking the most serious that any of the Jacksons had seen them. "When you all signed on to help it was to help Big Time Rush when they started with their band. It was to help them with their styling, their dancing, their vocals, and their songwriting. With the completion of their second CD _Elevate _and as it is now in its first week in stores, it seems to us," he pointed to himself and Kelly. "That Big Time Rush isn't 'almost there' or 'halfway there' anymore. It seems to us that they've finally reached the acclamation that they deserved."

"Meaning?" Patrick asked, urging them to continue.

"Your contracts were to help Big Time Rush break into the music industry," Kelly explained. "And they've broken it." He gave them a small smile. "So we don't need you anymore."

"We're releasing you from your contracts!" Gustavo finished.

The Jacksons blinked and looked at each other. They knew that it was going to come eventually, but they didn't think that it would come so soon. The guys had only just released their second album, sales were only starting to come in, and they didn't think that they had really broken anything yet. They looked over at Ronan, who nodded in agreement. But if Gustavo and Ronan thought that they had, who were they to argue?

"It was nice working with you, Gustavo," Riley said, holding out her hand for Gustavo to shake. "Thanks for the opportunity."

"Wait," Gustavo pushed her hand away. "Just because we're letting you out of your contracts, it doesn't mean that you guys still can't help."

"You can still come over to help the guys when they need it or when they ask, you can come over to the studio whenever you want, you're just not being paid for it anymore," Kelly explained. "It'll give you guys a chance to work more on your own music, even though we'll still have projects for you guys to work on together."

"Well, that's cool," Sydney was bouncing in his seat. "It was fun working with them, we were glad to have the opportunity, and we can't wait to see what they're going to do in the future."

"So where do we sign?" Patrick asked, wiggling his fingers for a pen.

Gustavo and Kelly handed them out to the Jacksons and they quickly signed where they were instructed to sign, right next to where they had signed it the year before. "We've released Dak from his contract as well, so he could go out and pursue more of the things that he wants to do," Kelly continued. "For a while there, we felt bad because we thought that we were holding him back here in LA. Right Gustavo?"

Gustavo shrugged, a bit uncomfortable. "Whatever." He replied. "I don't care as long as the boys remembered to thank him in their album thank yous." He held up his hands. "It's good for PR, other than that, whatever."

"What a gentleman," Rhuben murmured.

"There," Noah slid the stacks of papers back to Gustavo and Kelly. "That's it."

"Actually, there's one more thing," Ronan interrupted. He bent over and picked up a briefcase and set it down on the table. Gustavo, Kelly, and the Jacksons watched as he pulled out a few more stacks of papers. He dropped them in front of the Jacksons. "Remember after the verdict for the trial, like, three or four months later when the adoption was approved and we had to go to that court hearing to have your last name changed?"

"Yeah." Sydney nodded.

"Well, now all you have to do is sign the papers for it," Ronan pointed to the place on each of the papers. "Just one more time, I'm asking, to be sure." He looked at Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney in turn. "Are you sure that you want to change your last name?"

"Actually," Rhuben smiled as she twirled her pen around her fingers. "We came up with a compromise. To keep our parents happy and to keep you happy, we thought that we would hyphenate our last name so it could be Jackson-McGuire."

"Is that all right with you?" Riley asked. She didn't call him 'Dad'; they weren't ready for that yet. They weren't ready to say it out loud. But he knew that that's what they were thinking.

Ronan smiled and nodded. "That's all right with me," he replied quietly.

"Cool." Patrick said. The five of them then leaned forward and signed the legal documents that legally changed their last name from Jackson to Jackson-McGuire, as they were now completely and permanently Ronan's children. "There you go." They handed those stacks of paper back to Ronan and with a large grin on his face, he put them back into his briefcase.

"This has been such a whirlwind of a year with the guys," Kelly said. "We wouldn't have been able to do it without you all." She admitted. Gustavo grunted his agreement, not one to completely tell anyone how he felt.

"Tell us something we don't know." Rhuben smirked.

* * *

><p>"Wow, this itches a lot more than I thought it would," Logan commented, light running his finger over the bandage on his left hand. "Is it supposed to itch this much?"<p>

"Not within the first few hours," Rhuben replied, looking down at her own bandaged hand. "Though, it's your first time, so you body probably isn't used to it yet."

"Just remember to put the Vitamin A and D stuff on it when it does itch," Riley added. "It might smell bad at first, but you'll get used to it, and it stops the itching fast." She looped her arm through Logan's. "But if it continues, then you can just lightly pat it instead of scratching it with your fingernail or you might ruin it."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," Logan muttered in reply.

After Riley, Rhuben, and their siblings had finished talking to Gustavo and Kelly, they had met up with Logan, saying that they had surprise for him. He had surprised them all right, by taking him to a tattoo parlor to get his very first tattoo. Logan had refused to do it at first, saying that it was the wrong thing for him to do, especially with his band's image as well as the risk factors that went into it.

"Do you _know_ what happens when you get a tattoo?" Logan asked the twin girls, giving them a parental lecture. "They use needles and _ink; _it's not removable. When you get a tattoo, you also have a possibility of getting some kind of disease from the needle. Plus, it probably hurts a whole bunch while it's getting done."

"Uh, I think we know all about tattoos by now, LogieBear," Riley commented, holding up her right arm, her dragon and fireball tattoos looking back at him.

"Besides if we didn't think that you were ready to take this risk, we wouldn't have brought you." Rhuben grabbed onto Logan's hand and turned him towards the door of the tattoo shop. "Think about it. You'd be the first in your band to have one. And not just that, you'll get a matching one with me and Riles; we already have it picked out." She grinned at him encouragingly. "Live a little, LogieBear. You said that your New Year's Resolution would be to take more risks."

Logan thought about it for a moment.

He had barely nodded his head 'yes' when Rhuben had let out a cheer and said "Awesome! You won't regret this," and pulled Logan inside the tattoo parlor Riley pushing him from behind so he couldn't get away. The bell dinged over their heads when they went inside.

"Can I help you?" The man behind the counter asked. He peered at Riley and Rhuben and his face split into a grin. "Oh yeah, this is the guy you were talking about right?" He asked, pointing over to Logan. The twin girls nodded. "Sweet, come on back."

"Wait, what's going on?" Logan asked in a worried whisper as the twin girls grabbed onto his arms and pulled him back towards the inking area.

"We set up this appointment ages ago, Logie-Bear," Rhuben explained. "And we thought that it would be a good idea if you went first, just so we could be sure that you actually went along with it."

"Gee, thanks," Logan rolled his eyes.

"But don't worry," Rhuben sat down on a stool on Logan's left side as he sat down in a chair and the tattoo artist, Dante, sat down on Logan's right. Riley stood behind her sister. "We'll be right here next to you if you need us." She pushed her hair back behind her shoulders. "We were just thinking of a tiny star tattoo on your hand." She raised her hand and pointed to the area between her thumb and index finger. "Small, discreet, only noticeable if you bring attention to it."

Dante leaned over and held out a sheet of paper with the picture of the tattoo on it. She was right, it was small enough that if anyone asked, they would think that it was a drawing of a star he did with a pen. They would only know if it was real if they asked him or if they knew that much about tattoos. And it was so tiny, maybe it wouldn't hurt so badly.

"Looks good," he finally said.

"Ace." Riley grinned.

"Alright, kid, I need your ID and I need you to fill this out." Dante said, handing Logan a permission form. Logan gave the man his ID and quickly filled out the form.

Dante took them both and then photocopied the ID before giving it back to Logan. He then took the image of the star and went to make a stencil. He came back a few seconds later. After putting the stencil in the proper place, Dante wet it all over which allowed the image to come off the sheet and adhere to the boy's hand. "Go check that out and see if it's cool, okay? The mirror is right over there."

Logan went over and studied the image, more so psyching himself up for the upcoming pain than anything else. After checking the placement and the odd looking shading of the stencil upon his hand, and getting approval from Riley and Rhuben, he decided it would do and went to sit back down.

"It's cool." He said in a low voice.

"Good," Dante said before getting down to business. He had already poured the inks he would need into their small containers while he waited for the Logan to look over the placement so the only thing left to do now was hook the machine up properly and get to work.

Logan watched, fascinated as the needle went into and out of his skin so quickly, leaving behind the black line that would become the outline of his tattoo. He had to admit he had over thought the situation, the pain of it anyway. It hadn't hurt anywhere near as much as he had thought it would, though it did leave a unique burning sensation. It was nerving enough that he had to hold tightly onto Rhuben's hand (hoping he didn't crush the bones in it), though he was sure that it was for comfort as he had never done a thing like this before. His heart was thudding against his chest so loud he thought that everyone else could hear it.

"All right, you're done," Dante had said a half hour later.

And Logan had gotten his first tattoo. He continued to stare at the slightly bloodied bandage in wonder as Riley and Rhuben had gone on to get a tattoo in the same place. Being used to it they didn't need to hold onto Logan's hand, they just chatted away with the tattoo artist as if he was an old friend. Logan then got Rhuben to peel back the bandage so he could take a picture of the tattoo.

Logan couldn't help but smile to himself as they walked back to the PalmWoods. Though the pain hadn't gone away and his hand continued to itch, it was thrilling for him. He was glad that he did it. "Thanks for taking me, guys," he said as they had arrived at the PalmWoods and walked to apartment 2J. "It's really cool."

"No problem, LogieBear," Rhuben leaned into his side, her arm looped through his right one. "We knew that you would do it eventually-"

"But it's better to face your fears head on, ya know?" Riley added. She used her free hand to poke Logan in the stomach. "You taught us that, remember?"

"Yeah," Logan smiled warmly. "I remember.

"Good, you're finally back," Ronan said as soon as the three of them had stepped into apartment 2J. Katie walked over to the three of them and handed them cans of soda before waving them to the orange couch, where everyone was already crowded around it. "Ok, to start this party off, we would like to give you guys a gift," Ronan said dramatically. He reached into the pocket of his button down shirt and handed over a flat piece of paper to Mrs. Knight.

"You don't have to use it until you're absolutely sure that you want to," Sydney added, his eyes sparkling with anticipation as he watched Mrs. Knight take the piece of paper, a look of questioning on her face. "But you're really going to like it."

"I wonder what it is," Mrs. Knight said with a light chuckle. She took the sheet of paper and looked it over before her mouth dropped open in shock and surprise. She looked up at Ronan and the Jackson-McGuires for verification and they all smiled and nodded back at her. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"What?" Katie hurried over to her mother and snatched the paper out of her hands. She cleared her throat loudly and started to read. "To thank you for everything that you've done for us, we've bought a house in LA for you, Katie, and all of the guys." As Katie read this, everyone had different reactions of surprise, shock, and excitement. "It's been completely paid for so you guys don't have to worry about the bills. It's big enough so that you don't have to worry about being around them all the time, but small enough that you can be the mother hen that we know you will be. You don't have to move into it until the boys are ready to move out of the PalmWoods, but it'll always be there for you to use."

"Seriously," Katie was laughing a little, sounding a bit delirious. "You guys are _the best_ friends ever!" She punched her hands into the air. "I get my own room again!"

"Depending on how big it is, we could all get our own rooms," James grinned and whipped out his lucky comb. "Maybe I could get my own bathroom."

"If anyone gets their own bathroom it'll be me," Carlos insisted, shoving James on the shoulder. "While we've been here, no one wants to use the bathroom after me." He couldn't help the largest smile that wormed its way onto his face.

Patrick suddenly grinned. "Oh and one more thing that will help give us good spirits!" He cried.

"What's that?" Rhuben asked, looking a little skeptical.

Patrick looked at his phone. "As of today," he looked around and grinned. "We've known each other for a year exactly."

"And what a year it's been." Kendall added with a smile.

"You just _had _to put in the clichéd little comment didn't you, Hockey-Head?" Riley asked, although she was laughing and smiling. She leaned over and elbowed Carlos in the side. "I think Carlos is going to start crying soon."

"Hey, who can you be sappy with if it's not your friends?" James asked as he grabbed Patrick and gave him a crushing hug as well as a noogie.

"The hair! Watch the hair!" Patrick shrieked and was let go. He then reached out and punched James in the shoulder in retaliation. "Honestly, I figured after a year you would be able to realize that I hate it when my hair is touched."

"Or that you need to duck out of the way because Ri-Ri is such a klutz." Noah added.

"Or you have to strain to hear because Noah talks so quietly." Riley shot back.

"Or that you have to be prepared because Rhu-Rhu is a massive perfectionist." Sydney teased.

"Or that Sydney is way too smart for his own good, so you're going to have to get used to feeling stupid around him." Rhuben replied, causing everyone to laugh.

"Hey guys," Ronan picked up his glass of beer and held it up. "How about a toast to our first year together and to Big Time Rush?" He suggested. Everyone else raised their glasses as well. "To Big Time Rush and the success that they managed to have this year." He turned to his kids. "I'm sure that they would like to expand on this a bit more."

Riley nodded and started the speech, thinking for a moment. "There are some things success is not," she said seriously. " It's not fame and it's not money or power."

"Success is waking up in the morning so excited about what you have to do that you literally fly out the door." Rhuben continued with a nod and a small smile.

"It's getting to work with people you love," Patrick continued.

"Success is connecting with the world and making people feel," Noah added. "It's finding a way to bind together people who have nothing in common," he smiled and laughed a little, knowing that everyone was thinking about the time when they had first met about a year before. "But a dream. "

"It's falling asleep at night knowing you did the best job you could. Success is joy and freedom and friendship. "Sydney took a breath. "And success is love. Without the friendship that you guys gave us, we would never know this and we would have never been able to help you guys reach the success that you managed to achieve. You guys are our best friends and we wouldn't have you any other way. We love you guys."

"To Big Time Rush!" Katie cheered; holing her soda can high over her head.

"To Big Time Rush!" Everyone else repeated.

No matter where they went, what they did or who they met, the guys would always look back on their first few years in LA with the fondest memories. It was the start of a new chapter in their lives. The only way was up for them and with their friends by their side; they felt like they were ready for anything.

No matter what happened, they would be friends forever.

Now they just had to go through the rest of their lives seeing what crazy things were going to happen; because they were too weird for it not to be.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Oy, I hope I made up for the last chapter with this one. I slighted so many characters without even meaning to. Carlos I always slight and I have no idea why since I LOVE writing about him, and then I always do it with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney on accident (though stories coming up make up for that) and part of me wonders why I even brought Dak, Lizzie, and WayneWayne into the story at all if they were only there a few times (also adding in that I couldn't make up my mind with how long this story was gonna be. Ironically enough, if I could re-write this story I would, but I don't think I'll ever do that), the adults went nowhere and the girls basically disappeared. I hope that you guys really liked this one. I've got the deleted scenes coming up sono.

I really have to thank every single one of you guys who reviewed _It's the Rush That You Get_or even just read it without reviewing- you guys are the best! When I started writing it as a re-write because there were so many things that had been dropped or mentioned for a second or just wasn't realistic that I knew that I had to correct. I didn't know that so many people would enjoy re-reading everything. To everyone who's added_It's the Rush That You Get_, to their favorites and alerts, thanks so much!

So I'll leave you with this last chapter, I hope you liked it and here's hoping you'll read some more of my stories in the future.

**Cheers**

**-Riley**

**Also, for those of you that has a kindle or a kindle reader app, my sisters' and my book is free on the kindle until Monday and then free again next Wednesday and Thursday. Please check it out or recommend to others. You can see it here, without the spaces of course: **amzn . to / Qkte8m


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